The Ediacaran saw creatures grow
Diversify as animals evolved.
But Cambrian descendants do not show
A lineage, preserved or else dissolved.
A missing fossil yearns to be dug up.
The flinders ranges burn to tell their tale
Trace fossils, both a spicule and a cup
Mean evolutionary theories can prevail.
Coronacollina was
once a sponge
With opaline supports to hold it flat
Choia’s ancestor,
before the plunge
Into the Cambrian destroyed the mat
On which it lived,
before it then evolved.
Another fossil
puzzle has been solved
Was there but one, or many ancestors
ReplyDeleteOf Cambrian organisms - such a flock?
Students of evolution have almost fought wars
The lack of data seems almost to mock.
Explosion-like diversity appears,
Almost too short for geologic time:
A paltry few millions of years
For such an evolutionary climb.
It may be, then - it isn't yet disproved -
That all the flock came from one ancestor;
One innovative organism moved
The ratchet forward, then diverged much more.
A singular advantage was required.
Somatic cells may be the tale desired.
"Cellular differentiation as a candidate “new technology” for the Cambrian Explosion"
Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol. 20 Issue 2 – November 2009 - pgs 43 - 48
http://jetpress.org/v20/phoenix.htm
The point of the blogged paper is that by finding more diverse Ediacaran fauna, with Cambrian progeny, the "explosion" starts looking less immediate.
ReplyDeleteAnd a point for anyone else: please don't feel compelled to rhyme if you have a comment you want to make (It's great if you do, but prose is better than silence, especially if there is a fine technical point to be made).