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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
 Posted - 05/18/2010 : 20:12:19
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...from the article:
Ever since their discovery in 1909, the spectacular Burgess Shale outcrops in the Canadian Rockies have presented scientists with a cornucopia of evidence for the “explosion” of complex, multicellular life beginning some 550 million years ago.
The fossils, all new to science, were at first seen as little more than amazing curiosities from a time when life, except for bacteria and algae, was confined to the sea — and what is now Canada was just south of the Equator. In the last half century, however, paleontologists recognized that the Burgess Shale exemplified the radiation of diverse life forms unlike anything in earlier time. Here was evolution in action, organisms over time responding to changing fortunes through natural experimentation in new body forms and different ecological niches.
Read on....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/science/18fossil.html
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2010 : 03:14:09 [Permalink]
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The Burgess Shales are not merely fascinating but are considered among the most important fossil discoveries. And the surface has scarcly been scratched.
Sidneyia
Sidneyia is an arthropod, one of the top predators. This specimen was the first one found in this genus, discovered by Sidney Walcott when he was 9 years old so his father, Charles Walcott, named it after him.
An excellent article, and yes, those ancient creatures yet live on. We ourselves represent them.
Thanks for the read!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2010 : 05:29:14 [Permalink]
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| For those interested, the book Wonderful Life by S.J. Gould is all about the shale...great read. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Creatures of Cambrian May Have Lived On
