From Lorna Siggins at the Irish Times:
Though this species of brittle star (which are closely related to starfish) first developed nearly half a billion years ago, its modern day descendants are remarkably similar.
…
According to Doyle, this brittle star is incredibly resilient — it was around during the Silurian period, when the first land plants evolved. More.
Well, everything new is old again, right? And when we are talking about evolution, that matters.
See also: “Confounding”: Moths and butterflies predate flowering plants by millions of years
and
Stasis: Life goes on but evolution does not happen
Just how many “living fossils” are there? Darwin’s ‘exception’ seems now to be the ‘rule.’