Ctenophora

Over some prior posts (see here and here), I’ve been discussing a new paper in Science which claims to reveal Precambrian fossils from the Ediacaran period in China that represent bilaterian animals — i.e., animals with left and right-sided symmetry. Scientific American claims these newly discovered fossils show “the Cambrian explosion may have been less explosive than scientists once believed.” An article at The Conversation puts it more artfully: “Diverse complex animal life has a more ancient heritage than the Cambrian explosion.” As we’ve seen, there are good reasons to doubt a lot of the claims of Precambrian bilaterian animal fossils. But even if we accept all of the paper’s claims at face value, the Cambrian explosion is not diminished Read More ›