Latest news with #CambrianExplosion
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Fossils unearthed in Grand Canyon reveal new details of evolutionary explosion of life
Paleontologists have discovered remarkable fossils in the Grand Canyon that reveal fresh details about the emergence of complex life half a billion years ago. The newfound remains of fauna from the region suggest that it offered ideal conditions for life to flourish and diversify, in a 'Goldilocks zone' between harsh extremes elsewhere. This evolutionary opportunity produced a multitude of early animals, including oddballs with peculiar adaptations for survival, according to new research. During the Cambrian explosion, which played out in the coastal waters of Earth's oceans about 540 million years ago, most animal body types that exist today emerged in a relatively short time span, scientists believe. Back then, the Grand Canyon was closer to the equator, and the region was covered by a warm, shallow sea teeming with burgeoning life — aquatic creatures resembling modern-day shrimp, pill bugs and slugs — all developing new ways to exploit the abundant resources. Researchers turned to the Grand Canyon's layers of sedimentary rock to unlock secrets of this pivotal moment in the history of life, digging into the flaky, claylike shale of the Bright Angel Formation where most of the canyon's Cambrian-era fossils have been found. The study team expected to recover mostly the fossilized remains of hard-shelled invertebrates typical of the region. Instead, the team unearthed something unusual: rocks containing well-preserved internal fragments of tiny soft-bodied mollusks, crustaceans, and priapulids, also known as penis worms. 'With these kinds of fossils, we can better study their morphology, their appearance, and their lifestyle in much greater resolution, which is not possible with the shelly parts,' said Giovanni Mussini, the first author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. 'It's a new kind of window on Cambrian life in the Grand Canyon.' Using high-powered microscopes, the team was able to investigate innovations such as miniature chains of teeth from rock-scraping mollusks and the hairy limbs and molars of filter-feeding crustaceans, providing a rare look into the biologically complex ways Cambrian animals adapted to capture and eat prey. The 'Goldilocks zone' for innovation For most of the planet's 4 billion-year history, simplicity reigned. Single-celled microbes remained stationary on the ocean floor, thriving on chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide and sulfur molecules to break down food. What changed? Scientists still debate what drove the Cambrian explosion, but the most popular theory is that oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere slowly began to increase about 550 million years ago, said Erik Sperling, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Stanford University. Oxygen provided a much more efficient way to metabolize food, giving animals more energy to mobilize and hunt for prey, suggested Sperling, who was not involved in the new study. 'The (emergence of) predators kicked off these escalatory arms races, and then we basically got the explosion of different ways of doing business,' Sperling said. During the Cambrian, the shallow sea covering the Grand Canyon was especially oxygen-rich thanks to its perfect, 'Goldilocks' depth, said Mussini, a doctoral student in Earth sciences at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Ranging from 40 to 50 meters (about 130 to 165 feet) in depth, the ecosystem was undisturbed by the shoreline's constant waves shifting around sediments, and sunlight was still able to reach photosynthesizing plants on the seafloor that could provide oxygen. The abundance of food and favorable environmental conditions meant that animals could take more evolutionary risks to stay ahead of their competition, Mussini said. 'In a more resource-starved environment, animals can't afford to make that sort of physiological investment,' Mussini said in a news release from the University of Cambridge. 'It's got certain parallels with economics: invest and take risks in times of abundance; save and be conservative in times of scarcity.' Many soft-bodied fossil finds before this one have come from regions with harsh environments such as Canada's Burgess Shale formation and China's Maotianshan Shales, noted Susannah Porter, a professor of Earth science at the University of California in Santa Barbara who was not involved in the study. 'It's not unlike if paleontologists far in the future only had great fossil records from Antarctica, where harsh cold environments forced people to adapt. … But then found great human fossils in New York City, where people flourished,' Porter explained. 'We have an opportunity to see different sorts of evolutionary pressures that aren't like, it's really cold, it's really hot, there's not a lot of water.' Weird adaptations of Cambrian animals While some of the feeding mechanisms uncovered in the Grand Canyon fossils are still around today, others are much more alien. Among the most freakish: penis worms that turned their mouths inside out, revealing a throat lined with hairy teeth. The worms, also known as cactus worms, are mostly extinct today, but were widespread during the Cambrian. The fossilized worm found in the Grand Canyon represents a previously unknown species. Due to its relatively large size — about 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) — and distinct teeth, it was named Kraytdraco spectatus, after the fictional krayt dragon from the Star Wars universe, Mussini said. This particular penis worm appears to have had a gradient of hundreds of branching teeth used to sweep food into an extendable mouth. 'It's a bit hard to understand how exactly it was feeding,' Mussini said. 'But it was probably eating debris on the seafloor, scraping it away with some of the most robust teeth that it had, and then using these other, more delicate teeth to filter and retain it within this long, tube-like mouth.' Rows of tiny molars, sternal parts and comblike limbs that once belonged to crustaceans were also among the findings, which all date back 507 million to 502 million years. Similar to today's brine shrimp, the crustaceans used these fine-haired limbs to capture floating food from the water and bring it to the mouth, where molars would then grind down the particles, Mussini explained. Nestled among the molars, researchers even found a few unlucky plankton. Other creatures resembling their modern counterparts included sluglike mollusks. The fossils revealed chains of teeth that likely helped them scrape algae or bacteria from along the seafloor. 'For each of these animals, there's different components, but most of what we found directly relates to the way these animals were processing their food, which is one of the most exciting parts, because it tells us a lot about their lifestyle, and as a consequence, their ecological implications,' Mussini said. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Stunning Grand Canyon Fossils Reveal Evolution's Weird Experiments
A stunning new fossil find from the Grand Canyon fills in some blanks from a time when evolution began experimenting with weird new forms. About half a billion years ago, life on Earth really started cooking in an event we now call the Cambrian explosion. The fossil record from that time reveals a spike in bizarre, complex creatures appearing within a relatively short amount of time, laying the roots for most of the major animal groups that exist today. Frustratingly, fossils from later in the Cambrian period are rarer, so we don't have a clear picture of evolution's experimental second album. But a newly discovered batch of extremely well-preserved fossils could patch up that gap. These are about 505 million years old – 3 million years younger than the Burgess Shale, the layer in which fossils from the Cambrian explosion appear. Related: A team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge found more than 1,500 small, carbonaceous fossils in samples from the Bright Angel Formation (BAF) of the Grand Canyon, which was once a shallow marine environment. The vast majority of the fossils are priapulid worms, along with a couple hundred crustaceans and a few mollusks. Although ecological resources were plentiful at the time, competition was also on the rise, rewarding species that exploited new niches. Analysis of these fossils revealed a variety of adaptations to do just that. A worm species called Kraytdraco spectatus, for example, was found to be covered in teeth sporting elaborate filaments, which varied in shape and length based on where they were on the body. The researchers suggest that they used their tougher teeth to scrape and rake surfaces, kicking up food particles that they could then filter out of the water using the longer filaments. Crustacean fossils featured signs of suspension feeding by way of tiny hairs that pushed food particles towards the mouth to be ground up by molar-like structures. The mollusks, meanwhile, sported rows of shovel-shaped teeth that could have been dragged front-to-back to scrape algae or microbes from surfaces. The Cambrian explosion gets plenty of attention because it's so well-represented in the fossil record, but that was just the beginning. The newly described fossils, with their exceptional level of preserved detail, provide a fascinating glimpse into the time soon after that, when complex life was established and comfortable, and had the stability to start innovating with new forms. And we should be glad it did: most of the major groups (or phyla) of animals got their start during the Cambrian. That includes arthropoda, encompassing all insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. And there's chordata, which includes us and the rest of our backbone-bearing brethren. The competitive period of the late Cambrian could have cemented the strategies that helped animals stay successful half a billion years later. "If the Cambrian Explosion laid the foundations of modern metazoan adaptive solutions, it is the scaling up of their competitive interactions that may have enforced directional, long-term trends of functional innovation in the Phanerozoic biosphere," the researchers write. The study was published in the journal Science Advances. Related News Neither Scales Nor Feathers: Bizarre Appendage Discovered on Reptile Fossil America's Largest Crater Has Surprise Link to Grand Canyon, Study Finds 500-Million-Year-Old Fossil Suggests Ocean Origin For Spiders Solve the daily Crossword
CTV News
5 days ago
- Science
- CTV News
Fossils unearthed in Grand Canyon reveal new details of evolutionary explosion of life
Paleontologists have discovered remarkable fossils in the Grand Canyon that reveal fresh details about the emergence of complex life half a billion years ago. The newfound remains of fauna from the region suggest that it offered ideal conditions for life to flourish and diversify, in a 'Goldilocks zone' between harsh extremes elsewhere. This evolutionary opportunity produced a multitude of early animals, including oddballs with peculiar adaptations for survival, according to new research. During the Cambrian explosion, which played out in the coastal waters of Earth's oceans about 540 million years ago, most animal body types that exist today emerged in a relatively short time span, scientists believe. Back then, the Grand Canyon was closer to the equator, and the region was covered by a warm, shallow sea teeming with burgeoning life — aquatic creatures resembling modern-day shrimp, pill bugs and slugs — all developing new ways to exploit the abundant resources. Researchers turned to the Grand Canyon's layers of sedimentary rock to unlock secrets of this pivotal moment in the history of life, digging into the flaky, claylike shale of the Bright Angel Formation where most of the canyon's Cambrian-era fossils have been found. The study team expected to recover mostly the fossilized remains of hard-shelled invertebrates typical of the region. Instead, the team unearthed something unusual: rocks containing well-preserved internal fragments of tiny soft-bodied mollusks, crustaceans, and priapulids, also known as penis worms. 'With these kinds of fossils, we can better study their morphology, their appearance, and their lifestyle in much greater resolution, which is not possible with the shelly parts,' said Giovanni Mussini, the first author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. 'It's a new kind of window on Cambrian life in the Grand Canyon.' Using high-powered microscopes, the team was able to investigate innovations such as miniature chains of teeth from rock-scraping mollusks and the hairy limbs and molars of filter-feeding crustaceans, providing a rare look into the biologically complex ways Cambrian animals adapted to capture and eat prey. The 'Goldilocks zone' for innovation For most of the planet's 4-billion-year history, simplicity reigned. Single-celled microbes remained stationary on the ocean floor, thriving on chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide and sulfur molecules to break down food. What changed? Scientists still debate what drove the Cambrian explosion, but the most popular theory is that oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere slowly began to increase about 550 million years ago, said Erik Sperling, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Stanford University. Oxygen provided a much more efficient way to metabolize food, giving animals more energy to mobilize and hunt for prey, suggested Sperling, who was not involved in the new study. Animal Organ Fossils Grand Canyon Researchers uncovered the internal body parts of Cambrian fauna, such as these bits of sternums from crustaceans. (Mussini et al. via CNN Newsource) 'The (emergence of) predators kicked off these escalatory arms races, and then we basically got the explosion of different ways of doing business,' Sperling said. During the Cambrian, the shallow sea covering the Grand Canyon was especially oxygen-rich thanks to its perfect, 'Goldilocks' depth, said Mussini, a doctoral student in Earth sciences at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Ranging from 40 to 50 metres (about 130 to 165 feet) in depth, the ecosystem was undisturbed by the shoreline's constant waves shifting around sediments, and sunlight was still able to reach photosynthesizing plants on the seafloor that could provide oxygen. The abundance of food and favourable environmental conditions meant that animals could take more evolutionary risks to stay ahead of their competition, Mussini said. 'In a more resource-starved environment, animals can't afford to make that sort of physiological investment,' Mussini said in a news release from the University of Cambridge. 'It's got certain parallels with economics: invest and take risks in times of abundance; save and be conservative in times of scarcity.' Many soft-bodied fossil finds before this one have come from regions with harsh environments such as Canada's Burgess Shale formation and China's Maotianshan Shales, noted Susannah Porter, a professor of Earth science at the University of California in Santa Barbara who was not involved in the study. 'It's not unlike if paleontologists far in the future only had great fossil records from Antarctica, where harsh cold environments forced people to adapt. … But then found great human fossils in New York City, where people flourished,' Porter explained. 'We have an opportunity to see different sorts of evolutionary pressures that aren't like, it's really cold, it's really hot, there's not a lot of water.' Weird adaptations of Cambrian animals While some of the feeding mechanisms uncovered in the Grand Canyon fossils are still around today, others are much more alien. Among the most freakish: penis worms that turned their mouths inside out, revealing a throat lined with hairy teeth. The worms, also known as cactus worms, are mostly extinct today, but were widespread during the Cambrian. The fossilized worm found in the Grand Canyon represents a previously unknown species. Due to its relatively large size — about 3.9 inches (10 centimetres) — and distinct teeth, it was named Kraytdraco spectatus, after the fictional krayt dragon from the Star Wars universe, Mussini said. This particular penis worm appears to have had a gradient of hundreds of branching teeth used to sweep food into an extendable mouth. 'It's a bit hard to understand how exactly it was feeding,' Mussini said. 'But it was probably eating debris on the seafloor, scraping it away with some of the most robust teeth that it had, and then using these other, more delicate teeth to filter and retain it within this long, tube-like mouth.' Rows of tiny molars, sternal parts and comblike limbs that once belonged to crustaceans were also among the findings, which all date back 507 million to 502 million years. Similar to today's brine shrimp, the crustaceans used these fine-haired limbs to capture floating food from the water and bring it to the mouth, where molars would then grind down the particles, Mussini explained. Nestled among the molars, researchers even found a few unlucky plankton. Other creatures resembling their modern counterparts included sluglike mollusks. The fossils revealed chains of teeth that likely helped them scrape algae or bacteria from along the seafloor. 'For each of these animals, there's different components, but most of what we found directly relates to the way these animals were processing their food, which is one of the most exciting parts, because it tells us a lot about their lifestyle, and as a consequence, their ecological implications,' Mussini said. By Kameryn Griesser, CNN
New York Times
7 days ago
- Science
- New York Times
Grand Canyon Fossils Offer Glimpse Into When Complex Life Appeared
Tiny bits of creatures that lived more than half a billion years ago are offering new insights into a critical turning point in the history of life on Earth. The discovery does not come from the usual locales of major fossil finds, such as the badlands of the Dakotas, the high desert plateau of Patagonia in Argentina or the hills of Yunnan province in China. Rather, the remains of crustaceans and mollusks were extracted from rocks in a place that is chock-full of fossils but often overlooked: the Grand Canyon. 'I guess a lot of it is just overshadowed by the modern-day natural beauty,' said Giovanni Mussini, the lead author of a paper describing the discovery that was published on Wednesday by the journal Science Advances. Mr. Mussini would seem, at first glance, an unlikely person to be digging up rocks in Arizona. He is a paleontologist from Italy completing his doctoral degree at Cambridge. However, he is keenly interested in the Cambrian explosion, the period when complex life appeared in the oceans about 540 million years ago. The lineages of almost all the major living groups of animals can be traced back to the Cambrian. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
10 mind-blowing facts about Earth's most amazing creatures
Animals are familiar to us all, not only because we encounter them daily, but also because humans themselves are animals with fascinating truths. We share the planet with an incredible diversity of animal species, many of which play essential roles in our survival and ecosystems. Animals differ from other life forms like plants, fungi, and bacteria in key ways. They are multicellular, usually mobile at some stage, and rely on consuming organic material for energy. Unlike plants, animals lack cell walls and cannot photosynthesize. This unique combination of traits places animals in a distinct category, shaping their interactions with the environment and with each other. Discover 10 fascinating truths about the incredible animals on Earth. Features of animals living on Earth Topic Description Animal life on Earth Animal life began nearly 600 million years ago. Fossils of stromatolites, created by ancient microbes, date back to 3.8 billion years ago, but animals emerged 3.2 billion years later. Early animals like the Ediacara biota appeared during the late Precambrian. Animals and energy Animals are heterotrophs, meaning they must consume other organisms to obtain energy and carbon for survival. They cannot convert sunlight into energy like plants. Movement in animals Most animals can move during at least part of their life cycle. While animals like fish, birds, and mammals are highly mobile, some animals, such as sponges, are sessile or only move during early life stages. Multicellular and eukaryotic All animals are multicellular eukaryotes, meaning they consist of multiple cells and have complex cells with a nucleus and organelles. Most animal cells are organized into tissues such as connective, muscle, epithelial, and nervous tissues. Animal diversity Since their emergence 600 million years ago, animals have evolved into millions of distinct species. Currently, scientists estimate over 3 million living animal species. The Cambrian Explosion The Cambrian Explosion (570-530 million years ago) was a period of rapid diversification, where most of the basic animal body plans that exist today first appeared. Sponges Sponges are the simplest of all animals. They lack specialized tissues and have bodies made up of cells in a gelatinous matrix. They also filter-feed through pores and channels in their bodies. Nerve and muscle cells in animals All animals except sponges have specialized cells called neurons (nerve cells) that transmit electrical signals. Neurons form the basis of complex nervous systems in vertebrates and efficient systems in invertebrates. Symmetry in animals Most animals have symmetrical bodies. Types of symmetry include radial symmetry (as seen in sea urchins and sea stars) and pentaradial symmetry, which is found in some echinoderms like sea stars. The largest living animal The blue whale, a marine mammal weighing over 200 tons, is the largest living animal. Other large animals include the African elephant, Komodo dragon, and colossal squid. Fascinating facts about animals Animal life on Earth began nearly 600 million years ago Life on Earth can be traced back about 3.8 billion years, based on the oldest known evidence. The first fossils discovered are of stromatolites—layered formations created by ancient microbial life. These organisms, however, were not animals. In fact, animals wouldn't make their debut for another 3.2 billion years. It was only during the late Precambrian period that animals began to show up in the fossil record. Among the earliest of these were the Ediacara biota—soft-bodied, frond-like, and tubular organisms that lived between 635 and 543 million years ago. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Incredible: The world's toughest smartwatch designed for the military Indestructible Smartwatch Undo This group appears to have disappeared by the close of the era of Precambrian. Animals extract energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms Animals require energy to carry out every function essential to life—such as growing, developing, moving, metabolizing, and reproducing. Unlike plants, they lack the ability to convert sunlight into usable energy. Instead, animals are classified as heterotrophs, meaning they must consume plants or other organisms to obtain the carbon and energy necessary for survival. Movement is a key trait of animals While plants remain rooted in place, most animals have the ability to move during at least part of their life cycle. In many animals, this movement is clearly visible—fish glide through water, birds soar through the sky, and mammals walk, climb, or run. However, not all animals are constantly on the move. Some exhibit limited mobility or are mobile only briefly during early life stages. These animals are known as sessile. For example, sponges spend most of their adult lives attached to surfaces, yet their larvae are free-swimming. Some sponge species have also been observed to move extremely slowly—just a few millimeters per day. Other largely immobile animals include barnacles and corals, which show only minimal movement. Every animal is a multicellular eukaryotic organism All animals are made up of multiple cells, meaning they are multicellular organisms. In addition to being multicellular, animals are classified as eukaryotes, as their cells contain complex structures. These eukaryotic cells have internal components, such as the nucleus and various organelles, all enclosed by membranes. The DNA within a eukaryotic cell is organized into linear chromosomes. Except for sponges, which are the simplest animals, animal cells are organized into specialized tissues that carry out different functions. These tissues include connective, muscle, epithelial, and nervous tissues. Animals have evolved into millions of distinct species Since animals first appeared 600 million years ago, their evolution has led to an astonishing variety of life forms. Over time, animals have developed diverse body structures, along with various methods for movement, feeding, and sensing their surroundings. Throughout their evolutionary history, the number of animal groups and species has fluctuated, growing at times and shrinking at others. Currently, scientists estimate that over 3 million species of animals are living today. The Cambrian Explosion stands as a crucial era in animal evolution The Cambrian Explosion, which occurred between 570 and 530 million years ago, was a period of remarkable and rapid animal diversification. During this time, early life forms evolved into a wide range of more complex organisms. Almost all of the fundamental animal body structures that exist today emerged during this era. Sponges are the most basic of all animals Sponges are the most basic of all animals. While they are multicellular like other animals, they differ significantly in other ways. Unlike other animals, sponges do not have specialized tissues. Their bodies are made up of cells embedded in a gelatinous matrix. Within this matrix, tiny spiny structures called spicules provide structural support. Sponges also feature numerous small pores and channels that act as a filter-feeding system, allowing them to capture food from the water. Sponges branched off from all other animal groups early in the evolutionary history of animals. Animals generally have both nerve and muscle cells With the exception of sponges, all animals have specialized cells known as neurons, or nerve cells. Neurons transmit electrical signals to other cells and are responsible for conveying and processing various types of information, including an animal's health, movement, environment, and orientation. In vertebrates, neurons form the foundation of a complex nervous system that includes the sensory system, brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. While invertebrates have fewer neurons compared to vertebrates, their nervous systems are by no means simple. In fact, invertebrate nervous systems are highly efficient and well-adapted to help these animals solve the survival challenges they encounter. Symmetry is a common feature in most animals With the exception of sponges, most animals have symmetrical bodies. Different animal groups display various types of symmetry. One example is radial symmetry, found in cnidarians like sea urchins and some species of sponges. In radial symmetry, an animal's body can be divided into identical halves by more than two planes that run through its length. Animals with radial symmetry typically have a disk, tube, or bowl shape. Echinoderms, such as sea stars, exhibit a specific form of radial symmetry called pentaradial symmetry, which is characterized by five points of symmetry. Among all living animals, the blue whale is the largest animal The blue whale, a marine mammal that can weigh over 200 tons, is the biggest living animal. Other notable large animals include the African elephant, Komodo dragon, and colossal squid. Also read: Coral snake vs King snake: How to identify and differentiate their key traits
