A series of fossils unearthed in southwestern China has revealed the origins of complex life in unprecedented detail, and pushed its beginning back by at least 40 million years.
The specimens come from the Doushantuo formation, a layer of sediments deposited about 590 million years ago, just before the Ediacaran period’s primordial fauna gave way to the kaleidoscopically complex creatures of the Cambrian explosion.
During the Ediacaran, even the most structurally complicated animals had flat bodies with simple symmetry, like living quilts or mattresses. It was only during the Cambrian that animals developed what’s known as bilateral symmetry — a distinct front and back, top and bottom.
You posted a picture of a brain scan by mistake.
A broccoli scan.
@MarkEMarkEMark: Your brain is a 40 million yr old rock that once resembled some form of life?
It looks like a malteser with the chocolate bitten off.
Picture A looks like a close up ofa fossilised fly.
Why didn’t they put some figure legends in there?
That’s where we came from then huh? In a way. And even that is already a highly complex form.
I myself am very much like a living quilt or mattress.
Why do scientists say things like “It was only during the Cambrian that animals developed…” it just jarrs my ears so badly, I’ve heard them do it with ‘jurassic’ as well. It always feels like they should append “era” or “age”. I’m sure they used to. If an age was called Smith, and they said “it was only during the Smith that animals…” that would be so wrong, surely.
I’m probably wrong though.