Article on The origin of complex life

Very interesting article. Thanks.

Theres several theories (all backed with compelling evidence, like fossils of metazoan life that display the beginnings of hard parts), and these pieces of evidence come from several areas in Australia. Some come from areas like Brachina gorge in the Flinders range in S Oz, and competing hunters from the Pilbara sites in N Oz))> SOme of these actually occur contemporaneous with, and in at lest one fossil, may predate the "Cryoginian" period.

I think itll be a couple more years till the full story reveals itself. Right now we have competing universities whose science communication policies dont rope in their eager fame seekers of science.
Human nature is all the same.Everybody wants to be the guy who signs first.

Believe it or not but the feeler for much of this stuff has been in many journals for a few years.

Complex life . . . are we talkin' mothers-in-law, maybe car keys?

anything with lotsa Bio-drama.

I forgot to add above that more complex life forms occured (like Dickinsonia) which was contemporary with the pre-Cryoginian" cool down. Dickinonia looked more like a pizza shaped planarian with little parallel ridges(sorta like he was covered in corduroy) and sporting two eye spots on its top side (Where the tomato sauce and anchovies would live on a pizza)
Nobody knows what the hell it was, but apparently it was an evolutionary bad idea, so it only hung on for a brief 200 million anna

Just scanning thru this a.m. Is this about pizzas getting cold while being delivered at an apartment complex?

only if they arent wearing corduroy

Yeah, what farmer said, about old news I mean, not corduroy. They could have just trimmed it to the last two lines -

C'est la vie

God I love this reply. It smacks against the fanaticism of the science religionists on a2k who downplay the human element in science.

Thanks

There was a guy named spendi who I always fought ith regarding the subject of fame and fortune in science pursuits. Especially virulent are these "discovery" based disciplines where you spnd many yars looking ofr something and
1 either you find it an hve 15 minutes of fame nd TV spots and a movie followed by instant tenure or departmental promotion or

2You nver find it and have 20 years seeking decreasing funding


Anybody remember (Without looking up) who discovered T rex first?

I think this article is an excellent explanation of why evolution to complexity happened at that time. I would like to have an explanation of how complexity and diversity happened sequentially and orderly by chance mutations and survival of the fittest. Natural selection to weed out the weak is understandable, but chance mutations providing sequentially more complex life forms sounds like evolution might have had an idea in advance where it was evolving to for the stars to line up so perfectly.

I look on evolution as more an opportunist. If the environment changes, life has to adapt to those changes to survive or at least to do well. Survival of the fittest does not necessarily mean which organism can defeat another in combat. It is the one that can best adapt and make use of what is available to it.

I agree that evolution is an opportunist. The more complex and best mutated organism survives. I want to know how the sequential complexity happened randomly in millions of different life forms. Evolution appeared to plan the complexity in the organism so it could take advantage of the opportunity. Opportunist is usually used to describe a choice which infers intelligence. Could you choose a more scientifically accurate term so as not to infer giving intelligence to Darwinian evolution.

I don't see random or advance planning in the equation. Under the circumstances, life acts or reacts as it must. Random seems like a dead end, to me. Evolution can't say, I want this thing here to become an ape. There are too many organisms and chance happenings in nature to plan such a symphony in advance. As I am no scientist and and have no formal education beyond the age of fifteen, I insist on using my own terminology where necessary.

Thank you for your honesty. What do you mean life reacts how it must. Either it reacts randomly or there is planning. You can educate your self on how complex organisms evolve randomly or it's a dead end and there is planning. If there is planning that could change your world view.

opportunistic is a common term used for natural selection. Random and nat selection are two different things. naural selection is opportunistic as a genotypic response to a change in environment. It does not imply intelligence at all.

Are you saying the mutations that natural selection is opportunistically selecting are not random? Is a genotypic response a programmed response, a random response, or something else.

mutations are random or could be selected for. NATURAL SELCTION IS NOT RANDOM. Its a response because like Spencer said,"Its nothing more than thesurvival of the fittest" (Thats what Spencer really said and its therefore NOT a tautology)

That is exactly what I said. Dont try to parse farther what aint there sonny. Is your other name Layman??

"opportunistic" is a biological word construct used to define only those selective responses to environmental conditions that define "The winners" in the natural selection game

It seems to me that the first square dance got an amoeba to "grab your partner" and the first multi-cellular creature came into existence.

Since this seems highly unlikely, I would then think the default concept of some Supreme Being putting all the creatures here, "ready made" more likely.