tags: evolution

The Wake of Man

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Over half a billion years ago in the cloudy depths of the Panthalassic Ocean, lay a lost world of breathtaking wonder. Forests of delicate, jelly-like fractals swayed dreamily in the shallow calcium rich seas, while ribbed domes of gelatinous fauna morphed slowly into huge photosynthetic discs to drink the sunlight from the star above. These were not plants, who were life forms still many millions of years in the future. They were not even animals, at least in the sense that we are familiar with. These were Ediacarans, and they were the planet’s first attempt at multicellular life.

For over fifteen million years, perhaps much longer, they dominated the primordial oceans from which they evolved. For fifteen million years they experimented with a multitude of forms and structures, some resembling plants, some resembling rudimentary creatures. Some are even thought to have even developed crude nervous systems and antennae, the first tentative steps towards becoming even more advanced organisms.

Then came the age of predators; the Cambrian Explosion. And with it, their apocalypse.

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