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New Timeline for Earliest Known Animal Is 'Holy Grail' of Paleontology
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:17 pm
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:17 pm
We're all a little bit Dickinsonia.
Meet your oldest animal ancestor, Dickinsonia.
Amazing to think that 563 million years ago we looked like this. No mouth, no stomach, no anus. They may have reproduced asexually. Life was so much simpler then.
Another link for reading about our great, great, great,...great grandpa/ma.
Meet your oldest animal ancestor, Dickinsonia.
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Most animal life on Earth evolved during the Cambrian explosion, which began 540 million years ago. Before that, there existed the animal we know as Dickinsonia.
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Before the Cambrian explosion created the vast majority of Earth’s first animals 540 million years ago, the world was a relatively quiet place. But that doesn’t mean it was lifeless. Before the Cambrian period, there lived a smattering of weird creatures referred to as the Ediacarian biota. Oldest among these bizarre organisms was a floppy 1.5-meter-long bathmat of a creature known as Dickinsonia. In a new Science paper, researchers confirm that this soft, weird little guy is the earliest known animal humans have ever discovered.
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Dickinsonia fossil that was so well preserved that it still had traces of cholesterol — the fatty stuff that blocks human blood vessels — which the researchers used to date its origins. Cholesterol, the team explains in the paper, is a hallmark of animal life.
Amazing to think that 563 million years ago we looked like this. No mouth, no stomach, no anus. They may have reproduced asexually. Life was so much simpler then.
Another link for reading about our great, great, great,...great grandpa/ma.
This post was edited on 9/24/18 at 8:21 pm
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Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:27 pm to Kentucker
I believe floppy dickinsonia still exist. Isn't that what Viagra is for?
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:48 pm to Carolina_Girl
Amazing how evolution just stopped. Why aren’t we evolving into forms that are immune to things that kill us? Where is the transition specie between this guy and a dog, cat, horse. Evolution is obsurd logically.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:49 pm to Carolina_Girl
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I believe floppy dickinsonia still exist. Isn't that what Viagra is for?
Curse you CG! You beat me to the punch on this one.
Also a fascinating finding. Every day science discovers new and wonderful things.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:52 pm to GaDawg9977
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Amazing how evolution just stopped. Why aren’t we evolving into forms that are immune to things that kill us? Where is the transition specie between this guy and a dog, cat, horse. Evolution is obsurd logically.
Oh dear.
I could try to explain this but you'd just start hurling feces.
Do a little research online... reputable sites this time. Start with evolution. Again, not the sites you read, but scientific ones.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 8:56 pm to GaDawg9977
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Why aren’t we evolving into forms that are immune to things that kill us?
Because we are actively fighting the mechanisms that spur evolution.
Survival of the fittest? That shite's racist, elitist, and sexist.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 9:06 pm to Arksulli
Yes. I’ve read them. Same old stuff. Predetermined conclusion and bend the research to match even when it goes against natural laws... just sounding intelligent doesn’t make one right. Evolution takes a lot more faith than creation.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 9:10 pm to Kentucker
I didn’t come from no Dickinsonia!
Posted on 9/24/18 at 9:32 pm to Kentucker
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Before the Cambrian explosion created the vast majority of Earth’s first animals 540 million years ago, the world was a relatively quiet place. But that doesn’t mean it was lifeless. Before the Cambrian period, there lived a smattering of weird creatures referred to as the Ediacarian biota. Oldest among these bizarre organisms was a floppy 1.5-meter-long bathmat of a creature known as Dickinsonia. In a new Science paper, researchers confirm that this soft, weird little guy is the earliest known animal humans have ever discovered.
You know what else is Pre-Cambrian?
Posted on 9/24/18 at 9:53 pm to GaDawg9977
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Yes. I’ve read them. Same old stuff. Predetermined conclusion and bend the research to match even when it goes against natural laws... just sounding intelligent doesn’t make one right. Evolution takes a lot more faith than creation.
I see.
Well the good news is that evolution doesn't work the way you think it does and it keeps on going whether you believe in it or not.
Evolution is not evolving to an ever better life form. Its a complete random frick all where one characteristic might make a life form great... only to be wiped out when circumstances change.
As an example. You have an incredible small penis and are quite stupid but you have the vague chance of passing on your small penis genes because a fertile female might think you are the best she can land.
So your descendants carry your stupid and small penis genes. And they are fine as long as they can find someone willing to breed with them. Your stupid and small penis genes are thriving!
But lo! A drastic change in the environment suddenly makes males who aren't stupid and have at least an average size penis more likely to attract mates. Your stupid and small penis genes, sadly, die out.
That is how things work. Evolution doesn't give a shite about whether a species is better. Does a species thrive in a given environment? Well its doing great!
Does that environment change and suddenly that species is sucking hind tit? Well... frick you species X. You join the billions of species that come and go. That is evolution. Here today. Gone tomorrow.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:13 pm to GaDawg9977
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Amazing how evolution just stopped. Why aren’t we evolving into forms that are immune to things that kill us? Where is the transition specie between this guy and a dog, cat, horse. Evolution is obsurd logically.
Evolution is an extreme form of development via trial and error. Modern human engineers HATE when it happens, because it tends to be full of quirks, flaws, bugs, vulnerabilities, inefficiencies, and worst of all: the shite's just hard to work with and maintain. You think legacy code is bad? Try DNA.
e.g.: Evolution versus Engineering:
It took eons for dinosaurs, lions, bears, elephants, etc... to evolve. Once we got the idea to put of a fort on wheels, it took us less than a century to create the M1-Abrams.
We need the advantage our intelligence gives us; because all those little nasty bastards out to get us (spiders, viruses, wasps, broccoli, rats, jellyfish, flies, silverfish, fricked-up poisonous fish, roaches, mosquitoes, evil-bacteria, spiders, raccoons) have much shorter life-spans AND they exist in far greater number and variety than we do (plus, their instinct based life-styles expose them to nature's merciless quality-control system); so the process can operate orders of magnitude faster for them than us.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:32 pm to GaDawg9977
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Amazing how evolution just stopped.
Evolution never stops. Humans have interrupted classic evolution by learning to alter their environment on a massive scale, but within the larger population we can see evolution at work via selective breeding. Smarter people are breeding with other smarter people. Less smart people are doing the same with other LSers.
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Why aren’t we evolving into forms that are immune to things that kill us?
Because the things that can kill us are evolving faster, as Woodreaux said above.
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Where is the transition specie between this guy and a dog, cat, horse
Bless your heart.
This post was edited on 9/24/18 at 10:33 pm
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:34 pm to Carolina_Girl
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:41 pm to Arksulli
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Evolution is not evolving to an ever better life form. Its a complete random frick all where one characteristic might make a life form great... only to be wiped out when circumstances change.
I think this is the aspect of evolution that terrifies some people the most. Random chance is reality in the Universe. Our intelligence gives us a great advantage but we still can't control random things like an asteroid strike that could wipe us out. Or a virus or bacterium. Or a gamma ray pulse. Or many other dangers to our existence.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:52 pm to DownSouthJukin
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I didn’t come from no Dickinsonia!
Dickinsonians didn't have dicks. Or vaginas. Or mouths or anuses. A boring lot, they apparently reproduced asexually. No wonder they went extinct.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 10:54 pm to hogNsinceReagan
I loved that series of movies. Some B movies can really be entertaning.
Posted on 9/24/18 at 11:12 pm to Kentucker
I didn't realize that cholesterol is a hallmark of animal life
Posted on 9/24/18 at 11:29 pm to Kentucker
Tremors 1 wasn't a B movie.
Posted on 9/25/18 at 6:47 am to Kentucker
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Dickinsonia.
The lead Palenontologist got cheated on by Sonia.
Posted on 9/25/18 at 9:22 am to cbree88
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I didn't realize that cholesterol is a hallmark of animal life.
Yep, it’s produced only by animals. From healthline.com:
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High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is the “good,” healthy kind of cholesterol. ... Your body needs some cholesterol to make hormones, vitamin D, and digestive fluids. Cholesterol also helps your organs function properly.
Of course, LDL or low-density lipoprotein is bad for the body if levels get too high.
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