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Complex Skeletons Might Be Older Than Anyone Thought
Gizmodo ^ | Sunday, November 8, 2015 | Kiona Smith-Strickland

Posted on 11/09/2015 11:07:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Most of the major groups in the animal kingdom we know today first appeared in the fossil record around 540 million years ago, which geologists consider the beginning of the Cambrian Period. It’s likely that the ancestors of these groups already existed, but since the fossil record depends mostly on skeletons being preserved in sediment that later becomes rock, the ancestors of today’s animals couldn’t really leave their mark on the fossil record until they evolved hard skeletons. And about 540 million years ago, that’s exactly what they did...

Some animals had evolved the trick of building skeletons for themselves before the Cambrian period, such as sponges and corals, but these are some of the most primitive animals on Earth; their body structures are very simple, and they haven’t changed much since pre-Cambrian times. These primitive organisms aren’t believed to be the ancestor of any of today’s more complex species.

And until recently, scientists thought about N. hermanastes was more closely related to sponges: a primitive organism, unrelated to today’s more complex marine life...

When Wood and her colleagues took a closer look at some especially well-preserved specimens, however, they discovered that its calcium carbonate skeleton was more complex than those of sponges or coral, and in fact resembled those of today’s mollusks and other marine organisms that live at the bottom of the ocean.

They also found that the tiny goblet-shaped animal shows early signs of bilateral symmetry, meaning that its body can be divided into left and right halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry are usually more complex than animals like sponges, which have no symmetry at all, or animals like the sea anemone, which have radial symmetry.

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


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: cambrian; godsgravesglyphs; precambrian
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image: J. Sibbick

image: J. Sibbick

1 posted on 11/09/2015 11:07:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

2 posted on 11/09/2015 11:07:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Complex skeletons existed from the beginning of the universe-in God’s plan.


3 posted on 11/09/2015 11:10:27 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: SunkenCiv


4 posted on 11/09/2015 11:15:24 AM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: JoeProBono

Thigh bone connected to the leg bone...


5 posted on 11/09/2015 11:22:51 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: JoeProBono

As some ancient astronaut theorists believe.


6 posted on 11/09/2015 11:23:06 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: JoeProBono

Ezekiel cried, “Dem dry bones!”
Ezekiel cried, “Dem dry bones!”
Ezekiel cried, “Dem dry bones!”
“Oh, hear the word of the Lord.”

The toe bone connected to the heel bone,
The heel bone connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the head bone,
Oh, hear the word of the Lord!

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun’
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun’
Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun’
Oh, hear the word of the Lord.


7 posted on 11/09/2015 11:25:37 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Halt! who goes there? Friend or anenome?

CC


8 posted on 11/09/2015 11:27:25 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (CC: purveyor of cryptic, snarky posts since December, 2000..)
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To: Don Corleone


9 posted on 11/09/2015 11:27:27 AM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: Celtic Conservative
Halt! who goes there? Friend or anenome?


10 posted on 11/09/2015 11:30:32 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Darteaus94025

citation please


11 posted on 11/09/2015 11:30:57 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ....carson is the kinder gentler trumping.)
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To: Celtic Conservative

Didn’t you recognize my white sport coat and pink crustacean?


12 posted on 11/09/2015 11:38:31 AM PST by SunkenCiv (See, it all depends on who's calling the shots. That also determines how media covers it.)
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To: Billthedrill

ROTFLMAO!

CC

God, how I miss people who are adept at using words like that. Like the Marx brothers or Abbott & Costello. There just doesn’t seem to be anybody who has that ability anymore. It’s all crass, base humor with no subtlety or art. No matter how many times I hear “who’s on first” I laugh my butt off as if it’s the first time.


13 posted on 11/09/2015 11:43:32 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (CC: purveyor of cryptic, snarky posts since December, 2000..)
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To: SunkenCiv

““This fossil has been known for a long time, and was assumed to have been a primitive animal, such as a sponge or coral. This study suggests that it was, in fact, more advanced. We have suspected that these complex animals were present in the Ediacaran, but this study provides the first proof,” said Wood in a press release. Her team published its results in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Wood and her colleagues say that N. hermanastes may be more closely related to today’s brachiopods (marine animals with hard shells that usually attach themselves to rocks or sediment on the seafloor) and bryozoans (tiny marine animals that form colonies and encrust rocks or the hulls of boats). That means that the complex skeletons of today’s animals started evolving about 10 million years before the beginning of the Cambrian period, much earlier than scientists previously thought.”(from this article)

This may make the so called Cambrian Explosion more understandable and having a longer time period.


14 posted on 11/09/2015 11:46:08 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: SunkenCiv

Touche’ sir, well played!

CC


15 posted on 11/09/2015 11:46:40 AM PST by Celtic Conservative (CC: purveyor of cryptic, snarky posts since December, 2000..)
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To: Celtic Conservative

;’)


16 posted on 11/09/2015 12:20:10 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Cambrian period?

I've heard of that!

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

17 posted on 11/09/2015 1:39:40 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring
It figures that mother Earth would have periods.

18 posted on 11/09/2015 2:16:20 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: JoeProBono

you’ve me a complex...


19 posted on 11/09/2015 2:54:31 PM PST by brivette
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To: SunkenCiv


20 posted on 11/09/2015 3:21:53 PM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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