Two New Unclassifiable Species Found - Not Fossils But Authors Hint At Possible Ediacaran Relationship

[drujd]

Just stumbled across this article, so I thought I'd share.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/04/two-unclassifiable-species-found-off-australian-coast

And the paper:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0102976

Daniel

(A couple of months ago while on holiday, I finally got to see some of the Ediacaran fossils in the Queensland Museum. Very very cool.)

[RyanNREMTP]

Now that is interesting to hear about.

[Raggedy Man]

Wow that's amazing. Thanks for sharing this.

[tmaier]

This is another example of the pruning of disparity that Gould writes about in "Wonderful Life". Imagine if catastrophic events had not pruned these early branches of the tree, there would be many more diverse body plans today, and what would they look like?

The pruning seems to be mostly by random luck, and not according to superiority of design.

[Auspex]

I think a lot of the 'pruning' had to do with a sorting-out of the viable niches as the ecosphere continued to define itself. Certainly, random events played a role in the outcome (and still do!), but the term "competition" in this context can refer as much to successful "cooperation" (better called "lack of conflict", IMO) as to the classic image of direct interspecies struggles for resources.

You cannot tug on one strand of the web without effecting all the rest.

[tmaier]

The niches never get sorted out, they keep shifting and exploding.

You are obviously a "tangled bank" Darwinian.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/charles_darwins/quotes/tangled_bank.html

I'm a catastrophic Gouldian.

[Auspex]

Actually, I am an Ecologist, with a paleo bent, and think that there are hidden uses to adversity (but only in hindsight).

"Anything that can persist, might; anything that cannot, will not"

[tmaier]

"Anything that can persist, might; anything that cannot, will not"

That's Darwinian. Also a mix of Dawkins "climbing Mount Improbable".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climbing_Mount_Improbable

There is not one single view that is absolutely correct, it's actually a complex mix of chaos and drive to perfection.

The Gouldian view is that "Stuff Happens" (Gould never said that, I'm paraphrasing... ). Life isn't climbing a mountain to seek the peak of perfection, but rather it is wandering around an exploding landscape in the desperate attempt to stay alive, and the lucky one survive. Like staggering through a minefield, survival and proliferation has little do to with true capability because you don't know where the mines are. Life is "Wonderful" because it takes a beating, but keeps on going.

Edited September 4, 2014 by tmaier

[Auspex]

The problem with perfection is that it is a constantly shifting and unattainable point; a mirage in the distance.

It exists only as a human concept.

[tmaier]

The problem with perfection is that it is a constantly shifting and unattainable point; a mirage in the distance.

It exists only as a human concept.

That's the problem I have with Dawkins. He sees a static landscape, but everything is in motion, sometimes very jerky motion. You can't "climb the mountain of perfection" when it is actually choppy sea waves.

but getting back to this critter... he might be a sole survivor of his phylum sheerly by bad luck. He might be the superior being we have been waiting for. He has returned from obscurity to dominate the earth.

[Auspex]

Darwin held that evolution plodded along, an unstoppable force for perfection. This might be true in a very small and limited way, but it is a far too 'mano-a-mano' view of direct competition which implies that micro evolution adds up to macro evolution, and is the result of a purpose rather that an unguided result. Punctuated Equalibria is a much more honest look at what the fossil record tells us, but it doesn't really tell us much about why unless we consider the effects of fortuitous alliance within the web, and give it equal weight to competition.

[tmaier]

If anybody wants an easy presentation of punctuated equilibrium, read Niles Eldredge's book "Fossils".

http://www.amazon.com/Fossils-Niles-Eldredge/dp/0691026955

The fossils and the photo quality are excellent. Gould writes the short forward and describes it as "a large format book filled with attractive photographs", and it is sparely interspersed with a presentation of the theory and just about evolution in general. The photos don't really support the argument, but they make the book really something that you want to read on the back porch on a quiet evening. Beautiful, many photos are full page (11" x 11").