Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

New life form discovered from Ediacaran,575 mya

Denyse O'Leary
May 12, 2014
Intelligent Design
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worm, 575 mya/Droser Lab, UC Riverside

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil of a newly discovered organism from the Ediacara Biota. Plexus ricei was a broadly curving tube that resided on the seafloor. Individuals range in size from 5 to 80 cm long and 5 to 20 mm wide, and comprise a rigid median tubular structure and a fragile outer tubular wall. Plexus ricei evolved around 575 million years ago, disappearing from the fossil record around 540 million years ago.

So we have evidence of this organism for 35 million years. To put that in context, we have evidence for the iconic T. Rex for a much shorter period. Did things happen more slowly back in the Ediacaran, or have we just not investigated enough?

Comments
Mung@5 - LOL, so true! "There MUSTA been areas in the ocean that got genetically isolated maybe with strong currents in a way that ONLY sharks were ideally suited to not evolving for several hundred million years. Sure it's a rare event that only some genomes through luck, OK a ton of luck, were able to take advantage of, and besides that, sharks COULDA been evolving sideways with lots of internal changes that we haven't yet completely pinpointed, and with millions of species forming and dissipating, it was bound to happen to some species that we call 'living fossils' which all makes scientific sense because it MUSTA happened somehow. And besides all scientists agree on this and yer not an IDiot are yew?" :P -QQuerius
May 13, 2014
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"A team led by geophysicist Norman Sleep demonstrated that black shale was prevalent in rocks dated at about 3.85 billion years old. They point out that so much black shale shows that iron- and sulfur-based anoxygenic photosynthetic life must have been well established at that time." By iron and sulfur based, what do they mean? I thought life was carbon based or else you wouldn't get a lot of the chemical reactions necessary for it. I'm assuming that they mean that the life just didn't require oxygen?VunderGuy
May 12, 2014
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Yes, organisms evolve due to change in environment, except when they don't. Quite an impressive theory. Can you imagine if ID theory consisted of the claim that things are designed, unless they aren't?Mung
May 12, 2014
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RV+NS caused the OOL http://www.reasons.org/articles/the-head-and-the-heart-paleontologists-discover-the-oldest-brain-and-cardiovascular-systemsDionisio
May 12, 2014
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The OOL issue may not be as difficult to resolve as some people think: http://www.reasons.org/articles/was-the-origin-of-life-an-instantaneous-eventDionisio
May 12, 2014
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AcartiaB: it is just that some things are better adapted to a changing environment than others. Thank you for your Darwinian talking-points. How many mass extinctions did the Ice Ages bring about?PaV
May 12, 2014
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Sharks have survived largely unchanged for a few hundred million years. Other species only survive for several thousand years. It's not about things changing slower or faster, it is just that some things are better adapted to a changing environment than others.Acartia_bogart
May 12, 2014
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