New data on Cambrian small shelly fossils from Germany and Sardinia, and Spain are discussed with respect to their stratigraphical, paleogeographical, and paleoecological value. It is shown that these small shelly assemblages represent very useful tools for reconstruction of geological processes and of the Perigondwanan history in the Mediterranean area, especially, if trilobites are absent or hard to recover from the rocks. The German and Sardinian assemblages reflect distinct ecological conditions on shallow platform and shelf areas and mirror any changes in these habitats. Thus, lateral and vertical transitions from restricted inner platform to deep subtidal conditions are documented by characteristic successions of Sardinian assemblages. German assemblages show clearly distinct paleogeographic/ecological developments. The reorganization of the ecosystems is linked to shelf-wide processes which can be stratigraphically correlated in their single phases (e.g., drowning of platforms, breakup of the Perigondwanan realm, origin of terranes). Broader paleogeographic relationships of small shelly fossils to the Far East and Australia are proposed and support earlier controversial assumptions based on trilobites. Because of the small shelly fossils distribution patterns, a pre-Late Cambrian separation of terranes from the so called European shelf of western Gondwana is unlikely. During the Early to Middle Cambrian a rather uniform and weakly differentiated facies belt across most of the European shelf is indicated, and this contradicts earlier concepts of more-or-less isolated depositional basins. Despite recent progress in knowledge of Mediterranean small shelly fossil assemblages, further improvements will lead to a better understanding and a much more detailed picture of the Cambrian history of Perigondwana and its relationships to other paleocontinents.