"Diploblastic animals are common creatures on present day Earth," he said, mentioning that jellyfish, corals and sea anemones belong to the group. "These animals (display) radial symmetry but lack complex organs, as shown by E. octobrachiata," he added. The multi-armed creature, and several other early life forms, went extinct around 542 million years ago, which Zhu said, "left empty niches for the subsequent Cambrian explosion of complex animals." Representatives of nearly all existent animals emerged at this time, when a rapid increase in oxygen made respiration and metabolism possible. In a separate paper, Shuhai Xiao, a researcher in the Department of Geosciences at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and colleague Marc Laflamme provide an overview of Ediacara fossils. In the paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Xiao and Laflamme agree that, "Ediacara biota bridges the cryptic evolution of multicellular life in the early Ediacaran and the extraordinary radiation of animals in the Cambrian period." In addition to the eight-armed creature, they describe other early living things that looked like leaves, shells, stars and something almost akin to a peace symbol. Xiao and Laflamme hope that as the Ediacara fossil database grows ever larger, more mysteries about these very early organisms will be solved. Related Links: Treehugger: Ancient Findings Show Warmer Planet Could Mean More Insect Troubles |
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