[SunkenCiv]

Fish glide past barrel sponges on a coral reef in an undated photo. Sea sponges were thriving about a hundred million years before the evolutionary growth spurt that gave rise to modern animals, according to a February 2009 study. Fossil steroids produced by the sponges are now the oldest known fossil evidence of animal life, the study says. [Photograph by Commander William Harrigan/Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary/NOAA]

[Eye of Unk]

I think Spongebob would feel good about this.

[cripplecreek]

Oh how far we’ve evolved. From sea sponges to democrats.

[WayneS]

When Spongebob ruled the sea!

[Just another Joe]

I dodn’t know that sponges like Oboma were that old.

[ETL]

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	IOW, animal life will never be *wiped out*. Draft edit of another update to the standard ping message. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Admin Moderator]

Fossil steroids produced by the sponges are now the oldest known fossil evidence of animal life,

Note to researchers: you shouldn't have sampled the precambrian rocks downslope from Barry Bond's septic tank.

[Old Professer]

This far removed, they will have to give all of us some time to allow this to soak in...

[ETL]

"Back then the supercontinent Rodinia, which had been Earth's dominant landmass for at least 350 million years, was in the process of breaking up..."

New Madrid fault and Earthquake prone region considered at high risk today.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is made up of reactivated faults that formed when North America began to split or rift apart during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era (about 750 million years ago). The resulting rift system failed but remained as an aulacogen (a scar or zone of weakness). The area was then flooded by an ancient ocean, depositing layers of sediment on the rift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone

______________________________________________________

A reconstruction of the supercontinent Rodinia 100 million years after breaking apart. Note the position of Alaska and the western margin of North America (labeled “Laurentia”). The giant continent split along the eastern margin of what is today Washington State. The future Pacific Northwest was a tectonically quiet, passive continental margin. (Image: Christopher Scotese, Paleomap Project)

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/geo_history_wa/Dance%20of%20the%20Giant%20Continents.htm

[muawiyah]

Just another sponge-bath for the current approach to evolution.

A blot here, a blot there, and we still end up with sponges!~

These suckers don't turn into dinosaurs.

[Billthedrill]

Well, we ought to be grateful for it. Think how much higher the ocean levels would be if it weren’t for all those sponges absorbing the water.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, no matter where one is on the food chain, one can be assured of sufficient iron in the diet.

[crickets chirping]

Wow, what a bunch of crabby patties...

/rimshot

[mass55th]

"Earliest Animals Were Sea Sponges"

Unfortunately, many of those sponges developed human characteristics, and never stopped sponging off of the rest of us.

[Question_Assumptions]

Bump for later

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP