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Awww, looks like an excited little opabinia has found a nice trilobite. It may have been the terror of the Pre-Cambrian seas, but it sure was cute.
They really aren't drawn enough.
They really aren't drawn enough.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 800 x 556px
File Size 54.9 kB
Um... re that Opabinia... google says it's middle Cambrian, not Precambrian. And the trilobite is definitely not Precambrian. Unless things have shifted way around in the last few years...?
I'd be very surprised if anything with a complex body plan (the kind that is locked in during embryogenesis) was pre-Cambrian. I don't think pre-Cambrian animals had embryogenesis, because I don't think their cells could differentiate. Specialize, yes, like jellyfish cells - which can grow a new organism from a polyp. But not lock into differentiated tissue types.
Differentiating cells probably require control of epigenetics on command of chemical signals - likely methylation, since stem cells are methylated differently than somatic cells. And that's where the "Cambrian explosion" came from, because organs and structures made of differentiated cells can be more complex, reliable, and lower energy cost (to maintain the cellular roles) than specialized cells.
I'm going to publish a paper on that hypothesis, one of these days...
Chris
Ps. I speculate that, once a plausible trigger for a Cambrian explosion is identified (say, the development of an unlikely but very beneficial epigene-twiddling capability), many of the efforts to push complex organisms back before the Cambrian will evaporate.
I'd be very surprised if anything with a complex body plan (the kind that is locked in during embryogenesis) was pre-Cambrian. I don't think pre-Cambrian animals had embryogenesis, because I don't think their cells could differentiate. Specialize, yes, like jellyfish cells - which can grow a new organism from a polyp. But not lock into differentiated tissue types.
Differentiating cells probably require control of epigenetics on command of chemical signals - likely methylation, since stem cells are methylated differently than somatic cells. And that's where the "Cambrian explosion" came from, because organs and structures made of differentiated cells can be more complex, reliable, and lower energy cost (to maintain the cellular roles) than specialized cells.
I'm going to publish a paper on that hypothesis, one of these days...
Chris
Ps. I speculate that, once a plausible trigger for a Cambrian explosion is identified (say, the development of an unlikely but very beneficial epigene-twiddling capability), many of the efforts to push complex organisms back before the Cambrian will evaporate.
/nods/. I remember that now...thanks for the info! I want to see a chewed upon fossil trilobite!
I really want to draw more of these. The idea of a little 1-2 page comic about this little opabinia keeps showing up in my head. The next time I need a break from Bone Shard...
I really want to draw more of these. The idea of a little 1-2 page comic about this little opabinia keeps showing up in my head. The next time I need a break from Bone Shard...
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