Mobile Animals Could Have Evolved Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

[Tank]

New Evidence Shows Mobile Animals Could Have Evolved Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2011) — A University of Alberta-led research team has discovered that billions of years before life evolved in the oceans, thin layers of microbial matter in shallow water produced enough oxygen to support tiny, mobile life forms.

The researchers say worm-like creatures could have lived on the oxygen produced by photosynthetic microbial material, even though oxygen concentrations in the surrounding water were not high enough to support life. The research was conducted in shallow lagoons in Venezuela where the high salt content is comparable to oceans older than 500 million years...

The 'Cambrian explosion' has been a bit of a puzzle brought about by the apparent lack of fossilised creatures before 600 million years ago. It appears to be that it was our lack of ability to detect the fossils that were there and the fact that the organisms fossilised very poorly that gave the illusion of an abrupt appearance of complex and mobile life.

[Davin]

I haven't read the source yet, but that article is very interesting. I've always had an issue with the cambrian explosion, but I've never been concerned or interested enough in it to look very deeply into it.

[Tank]

I haven't read the source yet, but that article is very interesting. I've always had an issue with the cambrian explosion, but I've never been concerned or interested enough in it to look very deeply into it.

It's looking more like an observation artefact all the time, we simply didn't have the visibility or resolution if you like. That and a couple of sites like the Burgess shale gave a false impression of a very abrupt arrival of lots of mobile life in a very short space of time.