fossil find challenges tree of life as we know it
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Fossil find challenges tree of life as we know it

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Fossil find challenges tree of life as we know it

Paris - AFP

Organisms long thought to have been the ancestors of early marine creatures may in fact have lived on land, said a fossil study Wednesday that may prompt an overhaul of the tree of animal life. If correct, the finding could challenge the commonly held theory that life had thrived in the oceans for hundreds of millions of years before spreading to land. The fossils, dubbed Ediacaran and dated to 542-635 million years ago, were unearthed in south Australia in 1946, and were long thought to have been the remains of jellyfish, worms and flowery seafloor-dwelling creatures known as sea pens. Now a geological scientist from the University of Oregon, using state-of-the-art chemical and microscopic analysis techniques, has concluded the fossils more likely belonged to land-dwelling organisms and were not animals at all. They may have been lichen -- a composite of a fungus and an algae or bacteria -- or colonies of micro-organisms. "The discovery has implications for the tree of life because it removes Ediacaran fossils from the ancestry of animals," said Gregory Retallack, author of the study published in the journal Nature. The fossils represent "an independent evolutionary radiation of life on land that preceded by at least 20 million years the Cambrian evolutionary explosion of animals in the sea," he wrote. Retallack added this did not mean that all Ediacaran fossils everywhere were terrestrial. If his theory is correct, it would indicate that some organisms mastered the transition from marine to non-marine life much earlier than currently thought, Paul Knauth of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration wrote in a comment on the report. It may even "support the possibility that the transition went the other way". In a separate comment, Shuhai Xiao of the Virginia Tech department of geosciences called the proposition dubious, and stressed it "would represent a fundamental change in our picture of evolution". "The evidence is unconvincing," Xiao wrote.

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

fossil find challenges tree of life as we know it fossil find challenges tree of life as we know it



GMT 15:49 2011 Friday ,10 June

Oil firm wins injunction against Greenpeace

GMT 10:27 2015 Monday ,06 July

Mini to launch ‘Clubman’ in 2016

GMT 17:21 2011 Wednesday ,23 February

Lampard Desperate To Win The Champions League

GMT 10:13 2018 Tuesday ,09 January

Barcelona to unveil 160m Coutinho

GMT 23:03 2017 Monday ,16 January

Bank of Korea: Money Production Cost Rise in 2016

GMT 20:33 2011 Friday ,06 May

Asad\'s army arrests all men over 15 in Daraa

GMT 11:55 2011 Tuesday ,29 November

Ultrabooks could save the PC

GMT 13:02 2012 Saturday ,01 September

Zombies and Morons compete

GMT 07:31 2017 Tuesday ,20 June

Sisi keen on attaining unity

GMT 11:50 2015 Saturday ,26 September

The Library of Fragrance announces January launches

GMT 06:28 2014 Saturday ,18 October

Asian Junior Volleyball tourney kicks off in Bahrain
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday