Transition to land remake: Now starring … the trilobite

Yeah, him. Telencephalon Guy.

Further to “Early tetrapod (“fishapod”) sheds light on transition to land—maybe,” this just in from Nature:

Contrary to their reputation as denizens of the open ocean, the extinct creatures known as trilobites may have crawled up on to tidal flats. Fossils found by Gabriela Mángano at Canada’s University of Saskatchewan and her colleagues in rock deposits from ancient tidal flats reveal that trilobites took to the land… (paywall)

How about this? There never was a Great Land Grab. As the seas grew hostile or just crowded up, various marine life forms poked at the land at various times. Success meant meeting the air supply challenge somehow. There were probably always life forms on land to greet (or eat) them, right back to the origin of life.

The Great Land Grab makes a better Attenborough, sure, but it’s probably not really what happened.

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