Discovery Of Giant Roaming Deep Sea Protist Provides New Perspective On Animal Evolution

[Guest Nicholas]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2008) — Groove-like tracks on the ocean floor made by giant deep-sea single-celled organisms could lead to new insights into the evolutionary origin of animals, says biologist Mikhail "Misha" Matz from The University of Texas at Austin.

Don't worry, it ties into fossils.

Find it HERE!

[tracer]

if you parse what the article is saying, sentence by sentence, there seem to be a couple of sweeping generalizations and leaps in logic in there. maybe we shouldn't just rethink the whole cambrian. we might ought to rethink the whole thinking process to make sure that there are no houses of conclusory cards in the fossil record.

"the trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" bertrand russell

"i know that's right!" tracer the fool

[Auspex]

Yup, over-interpreting trace fossils is risky business.

[Guest Nicholas]

I get the opinion that either they are not putting out enough information because it hasn't gone over intense peer review... OR...

The "academiacs" haven't constructed enough for proper empirical methods beyond, as it was stated above, sweeping over generalizations.

Please... if anyone knows any of these scholars who make the news... send them my message:

INTENSE PEER REVIEW!

[mommabetts]

Well it is interesting but I will take it with a grain of salt, like everything else here lately that has been reported.

[JimInAugusta]

Hi guys,

Thought this was cool. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7739703.stm

Jim

[mommabetts]

Tnanks for posting. A true brainless wonder.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I merged these two stories since they are discussing the same research.

[jkfoam]

The article cited in the two science news publications about the giant Protist was published in "Current Biology", November 20, 2008, issue. The summary of the article and the list of authors taken from "Current Biology" is shown below. Dr Matz et. al., by publishing this work is submitting the findings for peer review. I believe that is how it is done.

Evidently the two science news publications thought it was interesting enough to hype the report in their publications.

If you are really, really interested you can go to www.current_biology.com and read the article on-line for a fee of $31.50. Personally I'm not that interested to pay that kind of a fee but the next time I'm at the University library I might just read this article.

JKFoam

"Giant Deep-Sea Protist Produces Bilaterian-like Traces"

References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Mikhail V. Matz1, , , Tamara M. Frank2, N. Justin Marshall3, Edith A. Widder4 and Sönke Johnsen5

1Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

2Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL 34946, USA

3School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia

4Ocean Research and Conservation Association, Fort Pierce, FL 34949, USA

5Biology Department, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

Received 31 August 2008; revised 6 October 2008; accepted 7 October 2008. Published online: November 20, 2008. Available online 20 November 2008.

Summary

One of the strongest paleontological arguments in favor of the origin of bilaterally symmetrical animals (Bilateria) prior to their obvious and explosive appearance in the fossil record in the early Cambrian, 542 million years ago, is the occurrence of trace fossils shaped like elongated sinuous grooves or furrows in the Precambrian [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5]. Being restricted to the seafloor surface, these traces are relatively rare and of limited diversity, and they do not show any evidence of the use of hard appendages [2] and [6]. They are commonly attributed to the activity of the early nonskeletonized bilaterians or, alternatively, large cnidarians such as sea anemones or sea pens. Here we describe macroscopic groove-like traces produced by a living giant protist and show that these traces bear a remarkable resemblance to the Precambrian trace fossils, including those as old as 1.8 billion years. This is the first evidence that organisms other than multicellular animals can produce such traces, and it prompts re-evaluation of the significance of Precambrian trace fossils as evidence of the early diversification of Bilateria. Our observations also render indirect support to the highly controversial interpretation of the enigmatic Ediacaran biota of the late Precambrian as giant protists [7] and [8].

Author Keywords: EVO_ECOL