"no living direct ancestors"
Given that they themselves lived so long ago it would be a bit surprising if there ancestors were still alive.
Palaeoboffins discover 500 MILLION year old ARMOURED WORM
A worm which walked on legs and was adorned with vicious spikes is likely to have been one of the first animals on Earth to have donned armour for its own protection, say palaeoboffins who have identified the wee beastie. The "super-armoured" worm, a previously unknown species from 500 million years ago, ate by filtering …
-
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
-
Tuesday 30th June 2015 18:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I expected
I think "a worm that walked on legs and had vicious spikes" might adequately describe Geoffrey (Lord) Howe, who while appearing to be a worm during the Thatcher years eventually stood up and spiked her to such effect that she went three weeks later.
(Howe made some mistakes but compared to most of the present lot he was pretty good.)
-
-
Tuesday 30th June 2015 18:40 GMT ZenCoder
Worms's snappy comeback.
"Modern velvet worms are all pretty similar in terms of their general body organisation and not that exciting in terms of their lifestyle," said Dr Javier Ortega-Hernández to which the worms replied "Bitch please. You might have a pretty face, but you will have to put a bag over that personality!"
-
Tuesday 30th June 2015 21:30 GMT Youngone
Ediacara biota?
I had hoped for a mention of the Ediacara biota which was around at about this time.
There's lots of information in the usual place for those who are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacara_biota
Obviously not much is known about these plants or animals, or whatever the hell they were, but they're really fascinating.
-
Tuesday 30th June 2015 21:35 GMT Ilmarinen
How BIG ???
Was this a MONSTER armour plated worm covered with flesh tearing spikes?
Or just a weenie little wormlett made remarkable only by a thin cuticle and no more prickley hairs than a woolly bear caterpillar???
And could it have jumped as high as a man's throat, or eaten human babies (had it not become extinct) ?
Enquiring minds want to know !
-
-
-
Thursday 2nd July 2015 08:22 GMT jake
Re: Hairy Collins Monster ?
"A morningstar for salmon!"
No. Brute force on fish is contra-indicated. If you don't believe me, vacation in a location that allows fishing with dynamite. I'm talking building on a 14/0 hook & finessing the fish.
Try to remember, I'm in Northern California. Salmon here regularly grow large enough to feed over 20 people[0]. They aren't little brook trout.
[0] 20 people X 6oz fish == 7.5 pounds of meat. So well under a 15 pound fish.
-
-
-
Wednesday 1st July 2015 07:51 GMT fearnothing
If they were from 500 million years ago, they are not "nearly as distant" from the dinosaurs as the dinosaurs are from us, they are far more distant. Not only that, they're more distant from the dinosaurs than the most distant dinosaurs are from us.
Most recent dinosaurs: 65mya.
Most distant dinosaurs from us: 234-234mya
Distance between these and earliest dinosaurs: at least 266 million years.
Maths editor asleep tonight?
-
Wednesday 1st July 2015 11:40 GMT Nigel 11
Distance
Millions of years isn't really the right measure of distance. Some organisms haven't changed a lot since well before the dinosaurs (sharks, for example). There are "living fossils" that are still extant, but most closely connected to larger groupings mostly long-extinct (the pearly nautilus is an example).
And then there are the Archaea, single-celled organisms with biochemistries far more different from today's main groups than the difference between a man and a cabbage.
-
-
Wednesday 1st July 2015 11:59 GMT Mephistro
Re: Distance
An example of Turing-Style Cabageness Test (TSCT for short):
Q: Can you perform photosynthesis?
A: Hmmm... yes!
Q: Do you belong to the Brassica genus?
A: ... yes?
Q: Do you possess thick edible roots?
A: ... ... yes?
*** WRONG ANSWER!!! - WRONG ANSWER!!! - YOU'RE A TURNIP!!! ***
We could call it the Sauerkraut-Kampf Test.
-
-
-
Biting the hand that feeds IT
