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Why did evolution stall during the 'boring billion'?
New Scientist ^ | Jeff Hecht

Posted on 06/12/2014 7:44:28 PM PDT by JimSEA

LONG before evolution on Earth kicked in with a vengeance, it seemed to stall completely.

From 1.7 billion years ago, for a billion boring years, Earth remained a slimy, near-static world of algae and microbes. The pace picked up 750 million years ago: glaciers spread, complex animals appeared, and by 520 million years ago the Cambrian revolution – an explosion of varied life – was under way. The reason for that long stasis has been a mystery.

We may now have the answer: the gradual cooling of the planet's interior. Just as turning down a stove burner slows the boiling of a stew pot, cooling of the mantle allowed the "scum" on top to thicken, says Peter Cawood at the University of St Andrews, UK. The resulting surface stability slowed geological change, seemingly stalling evolution for a billion years, until the planet was cool enough for tectonic activity to shift up a gear.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: evolution; geology; godsgravesglyphs; precambrian
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To: JimSEA

Man, where does the time go?


21 posted on 06/12/2014 8:07:40 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: JRandomFreeper
How many have you brought to Christ with your battle against the current science?

I was converted thanks to that "battle against the current science." But you are accurate to call it "current," as fads do pass away.

22 posted on 06/12/2014 8:08:32 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: JimSEA
"On the hot young Earth, the outer layer was too weak and soft for plate tectonics to operate until the upper mantle cooled enough to allow sections of crust to slip under each other, or subduct, at collision zones"

Didn't know geology could be so sexy!

23 posted on 06/12/2014 8:09:06 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: JimSEA

Check out “Darwin’s Doubt” by Stephen Meyer.


24 posted on 06/12/2014 8:10:00 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: JimSEA

Wow what a story! Cambrian whatever and such! It’s all academic and field tested etc. Bet they even have some equations poking out here and there to make it all seem so scientific!

But not much gets past this scientist, yours truly.


25 posted on 06/12/2014 8:12:51 PM PDT by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
It's a weak faith that can have no tolerance for uncertainty. So weak as to be no faith at all.

If you rely on your own understanding for salvation, you really don't get it.

/johnny

26 posted on 06/12/2014 8:13:33 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JimSEA

There is an interesting theory that the reason we haven’t seen aliens is that there is some sort of evolutionary bottleneck or hurdle.
The pacifist view is that nuclear weapons or some of other tendency to war wipes these civilizations out before they become interstellar.
Another theory I read was that it might be the development of mitrochondria and thus complex life. There are single celled organisms that feed off sulfur compounds via volcanic vents, methane loving bacteria that feed off methane hydrates in the ocean, anaerobic bacteria and aerobic bacteria. Lots of diversity in the single celled biosphere. Even bacteria as large as small multi-celled.
But everything with multiple cells shares a large part of its genome. Mitrochondria are biological power houses, essentially getting a free ride for their DNA in return for fueling the larger cell. It appears less like a radical evolutionary step than a cellular accident, an incomplete division OR partial absorption of another cell that became part of a new, improved whole.
Out of all our biological history, this has only happened once to be passed on to all complex organisms.
And it may be such a fluke that other words may be teaming with single celled life, even oxygen bearing algae analogs. But we might be the only thing more advanced than that, because few worlds see the accident to make complex life possible.

This theory also explains “the boring billion”. Complex life was a fluke that could only happen after the accidental combination that led to mitrochondria.


27 posted on 06/12/2014 8:24:36 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: JRandomFreeper
It's a weak faith that can have no tolerance for uncertainty. So weak as to be no faith at all. If you rely on your own understanding for salvation, you really don't get it.

I don't know how this applies to anything I said.

28 posted on 06/12/2014 8:32:41 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: tbw2
One theory that never gets mentioned is that we are the oldest civilization. There aren't any others... yet.

That never gets discussed. There always seems to be that human need for something more advanced.

/johnny

29 posted on 06/12/2014 8:34:33 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Huh?

Where does Jesus say that if you devote your life to studying the physical world, you have no hope of salvation?

Also, how does the description of a biological process equate to being a weapon against the plan of salvation?


30 posted on 06/12/2014 8:34:42 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
I don't know how this applies to anything I said.

That is pretty obvious. When you can see it, you will be able to see it.

Being 'right' isn't as important in the long run as having faith.

/johnny

31 posted on 06/12/2014 8:37:15 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: varmintman
This is a rather dry but complete explanation of word usage in science. Science is quite precise about what words such as "theory", observation or hypothesis mean. This is a more entertaining but accurate PBS presentation from Nova on evolution. Most people accept critiques on science that are based on "straw man" descriptions of what a scientific discipline says. It makes communication difficult, to say the least.
32 posted on 06/12/2014 8:39:16 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: exDemMom
Where does Jesus say that if you devote your life to studying the physical world, you have no hope of salvation?

More importantly, where did I say that?

Also, how does the description of a biological process equate to being a weapon against the plan of salvation?

It does not. Macro Evolution is not a description of a biological process, however, as it has never been observed.

33 posted on 06/12/2014 8:39:17 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: JRandomFreeper
Being 'right' isn't as important in the long run as having faith.

This is merely relativism. If you don't believe that Christ is "right," then all you have faith in is faith itself. This sort of thing does not stand up under any close scrutiny at all.

34 posted on 06/12/2014 8:40:48 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: Kirkwood

And how did it happen?

Ddarwin himself had big doubts about that, as well as Stephen Gould. Gould came up with his “punctuated equilibrium “ to try to explain Cambrian - but it proved insufficient.

I used to believe in Darwin’s theory, after reading “Darwin’s Doubt “, I’ve become a strong skeptic.


35 posted on 06/12/2014 8:41:56 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: Jim Robinson

Well, global cooling had to take place first before we could come along and build the SUV so Al Gore could save us from ourselves, making a ton of money at the same time.


36 posted on 06/12/2014 8:42:10 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: BitWielder1
Aliens came and seeded Earth with some more interesting life forms.

You mean like the way Spanish explorers let hogs loose on islands so when they returned later they would have fresh meat?

Uh oh.

37 posted on 06/12/2014 8:44:22 PM PDT by eartrumpet
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
Paul tells us that we will NEVER see anything but 'through a glass, darkly'.

To try to assume we have all the answers is to usurp the role of faith.

The devil is in the details. You presume to have answers to the details. The scriptures tell us that we do not.

/johnny

38 posted on 06/12/2014 8:45:24 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Fungi
the “boring billions” never existed. Silly fools.

The Earth;'s evolution involved some massive collisions, one of which was when the Moon separated from our current Earth. And ... since our moon is much less subject to evolutionary changes such as those on Earth, which is subject to wind, water, rain, earthquakes, and spinning in orbit. So it is that scientists used Moon rocks to tell us - factually - that our Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

39 posted on 06/12/2014 8:53:33 PM PDT by OldNavyVet
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To: JRandomFreeper
Paul tells us that we will NEVER see anything but 'through a glass, darkly'. To try to assume we have all the answers is to usurp the role of faith. The devil is in the details. You presume to have answers to the details. The scriptures tell us that we do not.

Again, I don't know how this has anything to do with anything I've said. It is pure nonsense to suppose that we aren't allowed to know anything about evolution or what the scripture teaches of creation. The passage you cite has nothing whatever to do with what you are claiming.

40 posted on 06/12/2014 8:54:03 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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