[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
Science-Technology Title: Fossils of Earliest Animal Life Possibly Discovered Fossils of Earliest Animal Life Possibly Discovered
Fossils of what could be the oldest animal bodies have been discovered in Australia, pushing back the clock on when animal life first appeared on Earth to at least 70 million years earlier than previously thought. The results suggest that primitive sponge-like creatures lived in ocean reefs about 650 million years ago. Digital images of the fossils suggest the animals were about a centimeter in size (the width of your small fingertip) and had irregularly shaped bodies with a network of internal canals. The shelly fossils, found beneath a 635 million-year-old glacial deposit in South Australia, represent the earliest evidence of animal body forms in the current fossil record. Previously, the oldest known fossils of hard-bodied animals were from two reef-dwelling organisms that lived around 550 million years ago. Researchers have identified controversial fossils of soft-bodied animals that date to the latter part of the Ediacaran period between 577 and 542 million years ago. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences. Surpise finding Princeton University geoscientists Adam Maloof and Catherine Rose spotted the fossils while working on a project focused on the severe ice age that marked the end of the Cryogenian period 635 million years ago. They spotted the fossils in the crevices between stromatolites, which are structures that form in oceans where the environment is too harsh for plants to grow and so cyanobacteria take over to form these microbial mats. Over time sediment piles on top, the microbes move back up to the surface and the cycle repeats until you get this sediment pile topped by bacteria. "We're guessing the microbial mats made a reef-like substrate, and these sponges were probably growing on top, taking advantage of the reef height," Maloof told LiveScience. Though the scientists aren't positive it's an animal, "that's our best guess," Maloof said. The organism is relatively large, so it likely wasn't something made by bacteria; it's asymmetric, suggesting it wasn't a higher animal like a worm; and it sported relatively large tunnels or canals, which resemble those found in sponges today. Algae have tubes that are much smaller than those in this fossil organism. Today's sponges are equipped with tiny tubes that suck in seawater, which contains carbon they can eat. "And then to get rid of the water it's exhaled through the sponge and comes out of a series of larger tubes," Maloof said. The fossils showed this series of tubes that seem to be the exhaling type. Snowball Earth Their findings, published in the Aug. 17 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, provide the first direct evidence that animal life existed before – and probably survived – the severe "snowball Earth" event that left much of the globe covered in ice at the end of the Cryogenian. "We were accustomed to finding rocks with embedded mud chips, and at first this is what we thought we were seeing," Maloof said. "But then we noticed these repeated shapes that we were finding everywhere – wishbones, rings, perforated slabs and anvils. We realized we had stumbled upon some sort of organism, and we decided to analyze the fossils." Maloof added, "No one was expecting that we would find animals that lived before the ice age, and since animals probably did not evolve twice, we are suddenly confronted with the question of how a relative of these reef-dwelling animals survived the 'snowball Earth.'" Making 3-D images Analyzing the fossils turned out to be easier said than done. The ancient skeletal fossils are made not of bone, but of calcite, which is the same material that makes up the rock matrix in which they are embedded. Therefore X-rays, which distinguish between different densities of bones, couldn't be used to look at the newly discovered fossils. Maloof, Rose and their collaborators teamed up with professionals at Situ Studio, a Brooklyn-based design and digital fabrication studio, to create three-dimensional digital models of two individual fossils that were embedded in the surrounding rock. When they began the digital reconstruction process, the shape of some of the two-dimensional slices made the researchers suspect they might be dealing with the previously discovered Namacalathus, a goblet-shaped creature featuring a long body stalk topped with a hollow ball. But their model revealed the creatures looked nothing like Namacalathus, but were rather sponges. Previously, the oldest known and undisputed fossilized sponges date to around 520 million years old. In future research, Maloof and his colleagues intend to automate the three-dimensional digital reconstruction technique to increase the speed of the process. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Wait, I thought the earth was only 5,000 years old. How can this be? /aka loser "Lets [sic] rent a room." ~ Jethro Tull to Rotara #2. To: Skip Intro (#0) I dunno about this. I heard that the earth is so young that it's still wet behind the ears, and the Grand Canyon has barely had time to even dry out in the couple of thousand years since it was formed from mud. "See in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --- George W. Bush (Rochester NY, 5-24-2005) #3. To: Fred Mertz (#1) Wait, I thought the earth was only 5,000 years old. How can this be? Please, it's 6000 years old. Let's be accurate. "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #4. To: mininggold (#2) I dunno about this. I heard that the earth is so young that it's still wet behind the ears, and the Grand Canyon has barely had time to even dry out in the couple of thousand years since it was formed from mud. Obviously, Satan has led these people astray. Boy are they in for a big surprise! "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #5. To: Fred Mertz (#1) Wait, I thought the earth was only 5,000 years old. How can this be? These guys will dig up anything if there's a big fat federal grant attached to it... #6. To: Murron (#5) These guys will dig up anything if there's a big fat federal grant attached to it... Spoken like a true hillbilly. "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #7. To: Skip Intro (#3) Please, it's 6000 years old. Let's be accurate. Your mainstream science is a religion unto itself, Radio Carbon dating actually works within reason for dates inside 20,000 yrs I've posted several times here at LF about Expanded Earth Theory and Electric Universe, Once the viewer/thinker grasps how obvious Expanded Earth theory is,....the next question is why the old stunted theory of Continental drift is upheld still. There is a crisis occuring on many levels of authoritarian control. with the above,...there is of course another answer/process occuring,
#8. To: Parrot with speed dial (#7) Radio Carbon dating actually works within reason for dates inside 20,000 yrs You do know there are other dating methods, right? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #9. To: Skip Intro (#0) The results suggest that primitive sponge-like creatures lived in ocean reefs about 650 million years ago What results. Oh circular reasoning. Such intellectual light weights.
#10. To: Fred Mertz (#1) Wait, I thought the earth was only 5,000 years old. How can this be? Where is the evidence in this article for the age of the earth. I didn't see any. In fact I have never seen any. Have you? If so what? Oh somebody told you that and they had a white lab coat on and that made them look superior to you in your eyes. You are becoming a joke.
#11. To: Skip Intro (#8) You do know there are other dating methods, right? You know they are based on each other right? You know that they are IMPOSSIBLE to prove right?
#12. To: A K A Stone (#10) Ignorance fits you well, Stone. Never change. "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #13. To: A K A Stone (#11) ou know they are based on each other right? You know that they are IMPOSSIBLE to prove right? No, they are not based on each other. Why not show me why it's impossible to prove? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #14. To: Skip Intro (#12) Don't be STUPID! Show me some evidence for the age of the earth that isn't based on presumptions and circular reasoning. You can't. Until then shut up about it.
#15. To: Skip Intro (#13) It is impossible to prove becasue the age in unknown. It is a guess. A stupid one at that that is based on assumptions by people who think they are wise but are indeed fools. You're a fool.
#16. To: Skip Intro (#8) You do know there are other dating methods, right? Yes,....but Isotopic decay rates are* influenced by Stellar energy wave form, depending on what occurs in our galactic neighbourhood, They will eventually find some common age/eon anchor points.
#17. To: A K A Stone (#14) And your knowledge of the age of the earth is based on what, exactly? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #18. To: A K A Stone (#15) It is impossible to prove becasue the age in unknown. Is it impossible to prove how far away the sun is? How about the nearest galaxy? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #19. To: Skip Intro (#18) Is it impossible to prove how far away the sun is? How about the nearest galaxy? Of course not. That is easily proveable. It is not even close to the same category as dating of the earth. You never offer any proof.
#20. To: A K A Stone (#19) How about the age of the sun? Is that provable? What about stars and galaxies that are more than 10,000 light years away? Can we know their ages? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #21. To: Skip Intro (#20) How about the age of the sun? If the earth is millions of years old. How big would the sun have been back then? It would have been so big that the earth would now be charcoal. What is funny is that you actually believe you are smart. You are a very gullible person.
#22. To: A K A Stone (#21) If the earth is millions of years old. How big would the sun have been back then? It would have been about the same size. What makes you think otherwise? "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #23. To: Skip Intro (#22) It would have been about the same size. What makes you think otherwise? Because all that gas burning for millions of years. There would have had to be more of it. Lots more of it millions of years ago. Or billions.
#24. To: Skip Intro, A K A Stone (#18) The proving part in any new understanding which challenges the existing is difficult. he sun's photosphere is often mistakenly referred to as the surface of the sun. In reality however, the sun's photosphere is only a "liquid-like" plasma layer made of neon that covers the actual surface of the sun. That visible layer we see with our eyes is composed of penumbral filaments that are several hundred kilometers deep. This visible neon plasma layer that we call the photosphere, and a thicker, more dense atmospheric layer composed of silicon plasma, entirely covers the actual rocky, calcium ferrite surface layer of the sun. The visible photosphere covers the actual surface of the sun, much as the earth's oceans cover most of the surface of the earth. In this case the sun's photosphere is very bright and we cannot see the darker, more rigid surface features below the photosphere without the aid of satellite technology.[end] Parrot:....calcium ferrite surface,
#25. To: A K A Stone (#23) Because all that gas burning for millions of years. There would have had to be more of it. Yes, there would have been more hydrogen then. When "burned", it changes to helium. The size of the sun would not significantly change. That happens at the end of the sun's life when it turns into a red giant. "How many confirmed NV Mig kills do YOU have general? I only have three." - Mad Dog, the syphilitic psychopath #26. To: Parrot with speed dial, capitalist eric (#16) I've posted several times here at LF about Expanded Earth Theory and Electric Universe, Once the viewer/thinker grasps how obvious Expanded Earth theory is,....the next question is why the old stunted theory of Continental drift is upheld still. its the same with science about the cosmos, Electric Universe is handing them their hat and showing them the door,..its a slaughter, but you won't hear much from NASA/JPL and their brokerage houses like Space.com... Interesting stuff... Bookmarked for later consideration. Democrats vs Republicans: The false paradigm of American politics People continue to believe in fallacies like the left-right paradigm because they are inclined for some reason- to make decisions based on their feelings, rather than objective logic or rational thought unfortunately. Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|