[doc30]

This is a very big finding. What we though of as an 'explosion' of diversity of animal life at the start of the Cambrian may have been an illusion. Life forms after the Cambrian Explosion had hard body segments that fossilize well so there's lots of these remains available for study. Before the development of these hard body parts, there was little fossil evidence of what animal life was like. The finding of a complex mollusk fossil predating the Cambrian Explosion by at least 17 million years is a strong indicator that complex animal life did exist much earlier than previously thought. Science is very exciting!

[doc30]

Ping - this is a good article for the list!

[rhombus]

What I'm shocked...scientists wrong about the past. No way but Global Warming is man-made dontcha know. Scientists say so. ;-)

[Red Badger]

"The Cambrian Period (543 million to 490 million years ago) marked the sudden appearance of complex multicellular macroscopic organisms."

Doesn't sound like evolution to me. Sounds more like GOD!.....

[wbill]

Interesting, but not new news. Congress is filled with spineless mollusks.

Also, the extinction of this particular mollusk was likely due to global warming, which was Bush's fault.

[VadeRetro]

What we though of as an 'explosion' of diversity of animal life at the start of the Cambrian may have been an illusion.

Exactly so. The "explosion" started earlier and lasted longer than the first returns on the fossil record indicated. (That is, it was not really an "explosion" at all.) Poorly fossilizing soft bodies hid much of the story from us by leaving a very scanty record, but there were exceptions. This is one of them coming to light. There have been others. Soft-bodied precursors to trilobites come to mind.

Interestingly, creationists mock all such "deep diverge" explanations of the Cambrian with, "Were you there? Oh, sure! Show me the fossils!" etc. Well, this is one.

[furball4paws]

Great find Doc. Eventually the Cambrian Explosion is going to found to be nothing more than a puff. It looks like that now because there wasn't much to fossilize in pre-Cambrian animals. With time we will find the diversity in the late Pre-Cambrian was quite high.

[theFIRMbss]

>ROM scientists say

ROM scientists are
very fixed in their viewpoints.
RAM scientists can

be more flexible.
Start with what the ROM guys say,
then work with RAM guys . . .

[dirtboy]

The 189 well-preserved fossil specimens of Odontogriphus omalus have been interpreted as the world's oldest known soft-bodied mollusk, and were found in British Columbia's mountains in the Burgess Shale, one of the most important fossil sites in the world.

Something is not right here. The article says the organisms were 560 million years old - or basically late Precambrian. But the Burgess is Middle Cambrian (505 million years old).

[<1/1,000,000th%]

2 more gaps.

[Sopater]

The 189 well-preserved fossil specimens of Odontogriphus omalus have been interpreted as the world's oldest known soft-bodied mollusk, and were found in British Columbia's mountains in the Burgess Shale, one of the most important fossil sites in the world.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary says that the Burgess Shale is "a 540-million-year-old formation of black shale". Now we're going to say it's 560 million years old? Based on what evidence?

[Virginia-American]

Amazing. Here's an article that touches on some of the Cambrian transitionals, including Wiwaxia corrugata which appears to be an intermediate between two phyla, Mollusca and Annelida. This new fossil is similar to Wiwaxia but without the sclerites. (IMO only!)

[SirLinksalot]

http://creationsafaris.org/

Cambrian Mollusk: Does It Help Animal Evolution Story?

07/13/2006

A soft-bodied mollusk named Odontogriphus known from the Burgess Shale, placed in the Middle Cambrian, has been described in more detail in Nature.1 If the Middle Cambrian is well after the Cambrian explosion, how can the authors claim this pushes the story of animal evolution far back into the Precambrian, before the explosion? A reporter for the Globe and Mail learned this from David Rudkin, one of the four co-authors of the paper:

This discovery pushes back the history of animal evolution tens of millions of years to 560 million years ago in Precambrian time (543 million years ago and earlier), according to the Royal Ontario Museum’s David Rudkin, co-author of the article published in today’s issue of the journal Nature.

This interpretation is based on perceived similarities with Kimberella, an unusual flattened, frond-like fossil categorized as Ediacaran (see 08/19/2004), dated at 555 million years ago in the late Precambrian. Yet a look at the original paper shows that the association is tenuous: “Odontogriphus and perhaps the Ediacaran form Kimberella possess distinctive characters that place them in the molluscs before the acquisition of a calcified dorsum,” it says. It qualifies the association with prefaces like, “If the interpretation of Kimberella as an early mollusc-like organism with radula is correct,” and portrays affinities with other early and mid-Cambrian mollusk fossils as “ambiguous” and “highly contentious.”

A look at their timeline chart demonstrates the point. There are more dashed lines and question marks than solid lines. All the indisputable mollusk fossils are found in the early or mid Cambrian, side by side. The evolutionary relationships are inferred by dashed lines extending into the Precambrian, with no fossils except for the puzzling Kimberella, which may have nothing to do with mollusks.

Moreover, the Globe and Mail article admits that very few fossils exist from the Precambrian, and that the Cambrian “marked the sudden appearance of complex multicellular macroscopic organisms” (see 04/23/2006). It also states that “In the Precambrian era, before the so-called explosion, organisms were thought to be much simpler, but this study shows that was not the case.” The paper describes these organisms as possessing a nervous system, a digestive system, reproductive system, excretory system, salivary glands and neat rows of teeth (radula). Nor is Odontogriphus the new kid on the block. The authors describe it as a holdover from “a handful of Cambrian fossils that probably represent surviving Neoproterozoic lineages” that survived whatever made the Ediacaran biota go extinct.

Such statements would seem to pose severe challenges to evolutionary theory, yet the news report speaks glowingly of how this fossil is helping evolutionists rather than hurting their case. “This is a crucial interval in evolutionary history because it seems to represent a time in which a great deal happened,” Rudkin is quoted as saying. He added that the specimen is “opening up new windows on evolution for us.” The article ends with a call for us to learn the lessons of evolution:

Mr. Rudkin said the fact that many mollusks have survived such a catastrophic extinction could shed light on the evolutionary path many animals may take.

“Those lessons we learn from the past — about where groups of organisms originated, when they become extinct, how they became extinct, or if they didn’t become extinct entirely, how they recovered from extinction — we use that kind of historical background to help us predict what might happen in modern extinction circumstances. Maybe there’s a lesson in there for us.”

-------------------------------------

1Caron et al., “A soft-bodied mollusc with radula from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale,” Nature 442, 159-163(13 July 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature04894; Received 15 February 2006; Accepted 8 May 2006.

The lesson is not to tell myths and call it science. This paper registered multiple hits on our Baloney Detector. Enough baloney, and you have a virtual big lie.

These extinct mollusks with all their complex parts have nothing to do with evolution. If this is a window on evolution, it’s a new view of the wreckage. How scientists can take evidence that falsifies their view and turn it into praise service for Charlie is another example of the shameful shenanigans of the shameless Darwin Party these days. Their shifty shell game is a sham and should be shot down by those who respect real science sans spin.

[sauropod]

I've always wanted to collect in the Burgess shale. It's only open to a select few.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

"pushes back the history of animal evolution tens of millions of years"
Looks like the science of evolution was on shaky ground, if one fossil can make such a big change in the theory...

[Amelia]

That is very cool!