Back to the Cambrian
If I were to time travel, I would travel back to the Cambrian Period. An underwater adventure would be extremely ideal since no life exists on land during this period (Bagley). Shelled animals and other marine creatures evolved as well as other animals with endoskeletons and exoskeletons. The major event that happened was the Cambrian Explosion, caused by glaciations, changes in ocean chemistry, and evolution of predators (Monroe and
Wicander, p. 240). The atmosphere had plenty of oxygen, and so did the ocean. A reduction in oxygen depleting bacteria allowed more dissolved oxygen in the water and this oxygen may have also triggered the Cambrian Explosion (Collins & Waggoner). Traveling 540 million years back in time
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Diverse types of mineralized algae, such as coralline red algae and dasyclad green algae, are also present (Collins & Waggoner). The brachiopods I see look very similar to clams (Bagley). A rather large predator looking creature swims by. It is rather large, and similar to something out of a science fiction movie, almost as if it was an experiment gone wrong. I soon find out that it is called an Anomalocaris. The Anomalocaris is a free swimming animal that swam through the water by flexing its lobed body (Bagley). It has compound eyes and two claw tipped appendages in front of its mouth (Bagley) and it traps its prey in fearsome mouth parts lined with hooks (National Geographic). The diversity of the marine life is due to the melting of the Proterozoic ice, which caused the sea levels to rise (Collins & Waggoner). Another strange looking predator is also present. The Opabinia has five eyes, and it catches prey using a flexible clawed arm attached to its head (National Geographic) which is quite a strange sight. Abundant coral reefs are present as well. These reefs were built by the first animals that developed calcium carbonate exoskeletons (Bagley). Arthropods are very abundant (Bagley). They also
The Pan-American Highway Project recently unearthed a bunch of old bones, which were initially found by construction workers. The bones were turned over to scientists, who discovered that the large bones were part of the skeletons of over 40 marine animals. The bones belonged to animals like seals, aquatic sloths, and even an extinct species of sperm whales. These creatures are thought to have been killed off nearly 10,000 years ago.
These animals are called polyps, and can live on their own, though tend to group up to form coral. Different groups of corals can eat different thing, depending on their size. A coral that is bigger would probably eat small fish, while a coral that is smaller might eat
These three sharks appeared from 190-95 million years ago. They were the first offshore-deepwater predators. Before that, most shark were small, near shore predators, who lived in very shallow waters. Then during the Tertiary Period, which was 65-35 million years ago, the so-called “filter-feeders” came along. These are the types of sharks who evolved away from being predators, and fed on plankton and other small marine
“Coast Beast” by Stephen Battersby is about a Dutch inventor by the name of Theo Jansen, who is a kinetic sculptor and graduated from college with a physics degree in the 1970s and created “strandbeests” which translated to English means “beach animal” or “beach beast”. In this essay it will talk about what makes up a strandbeest and how it could be titled as human-like. Strandbeests have a lot of mechanical parts to them. A strandbeest has plastic mechanical skeletons with many different parts to carry out tasks such as “helping build dunes that would defend the Netherlands against any rise in the North Sea” according to Battersby (page 2). The central spine of the strandbeest is a plastic “crankshaft” which is also known as a rotating rod.
Recently, because of the downturn of sharks, those coral reefs and seagrass
“Rockfish come in more than 100 species and many different shapes, sizes and color patterns.” Typically, radiant! Few other organisms live here too.
Throughout the history of mankind, there have been many mysteries and legends of mythological beasts. One of those is the legend of the Bigfoot. From Indians telling tales to Australians in the outback, the legend of Bigfoot has made its way around the world. Such legends of the mythical beast make people start to ponder on the idea that the legend may be true. Numerous groups of people around the world believe that the sasquatch could be alive and
The marine layer is a fossil layer found in the Grand Canyon. The marine layer consists of Stromatolites, which is the oldest fossil at the Grand Canyon. Trilobites are extinct marine anthropoids. Trilobites are found in the Tonto Group, Crinoids, Brachiopods the most common animal in the seas, Bryozoans, Corals, Sponges, and Burrows.
During the Cambrian period, no life existed on land. The Cambrian period occurred 490 to 540 Mya. In the Cambrian at this point, no life, yet existed on land all of life had been rare. Very early in the Cambrian period the sea floor was covered by a mat of bacteria . Above was a thick layer of oxygen-free mud.
What is a Thylacine? The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus: dog-headed pouched-dog) is a large carnivorous marsupial now believed to be extinct. It was the only member of the family Thylacinidae to survive into modern times. It is also known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf.
In 1932, the first of these to be found was Ichthyostega. The limbs and skull were land and water proficient like, however it had a fish-like tail and gill covers, and in addition a fantastic fish trademark: a parallel line tactile framework for identifying currents in water. In addition, the most recent fishibian is Tiktaalik from Ellesmere Islands in the Canadian Arctic. Tiktaalik had fish-like scales, jaws and sense of taste, however like creatures of land and water it had a versatile neck and head, an ear fit for hearing noticeable all around, and bones in the fins that were between those of fish and Acanthostega. The fossil record of the fish to land and water proficient transition is among the best archived of
As the temperature was increasing so was the anaerobic respiration. The organism was put under an intense amount of stress causing it to die. There was little to no oxygen on earth in the beginning. However, because there was not much oxygen the cells would have had to learn how to use the anaerobic process without oxygen. To conclude there was more anaerobic respiration occurring due to the lack of oxygen.
Based on the topic of the research, the anatomical structure that will be discussed is the pelvic bone of the modern whale, and the evidence of evolution that exists in the structure that lost its vestige. According to an online article by Brian Switek for the “Smithsonian”, an estimated 375 million years ago (mya) vertebrates that had arms and legs, known as the first tetrapods, made their out from one ecosystem (swamp) to another (terrestrial), to roam about. Dinosaurs remained the superior invertebrates during the time (Eocene period), the first group of mammals had evolved an estimated 200mya; during this interval, they became diverse, but small in size until terrestrial dinosaurs became extinct 65mya. Due to this incident, the major radiation (derived from the term, “Evolutionary Radiation”, is defined as the increase of diverse species from an ancestral species into different forms) occurred, which led to the first whales to evolve from the tetrapods that made their way out of the swamp ecosystem.
It’s the Cambrian Explosion. If you know what the Cambrian Explosion is, this may startle you. If you don’t, I’ll explain it. If you go out into the Grand Canyon or somewhere similar, you’ll see multiple different layers of sediment, and in each layer of sediment, or at least some, are different types of fossils. For the most part, at the bottom layers are sea creatures, and at the top layers are land animals.
As this happened, the sea level lowered as continents spread apart. The heating and cooling was followed by a large temperature spike. About 5 million years into it the sea surface temp rose between 9 and 14 degrees. Then, it cooled off over a few thousand years killing many of the single celled organisms that lived in these waters. This forced most mammals and other life to adapt