Cousin of the Jellyfish Spurs Fresh

Theories on Seeing Red

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: July 12, 2005

New York Times Pp.2

Cousin of the Jellyfish Spurs Fresh

Theories on Seeing Red

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: July 12, 2005

New York Times Pp.2

There are a few creatures on Earth we knew as fossils before we met face to face. Take the coelacanth. Scientists were shocked to discover a very much alive specimen of this be-lobe-finned fish hauled from the depths off South Africa in 1938. Prior to the discovery of this bit of rather irrefutable evidence, scientists believed the fish went the way of the dinosaurs (literally) at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years prior. Although not the first, Paleodictyon is probably the only member of this fossils-first group that was briefly considered to be evidence of some sort of alien deep sea race (hellooooo, Abyss) before it was connected to its fossil ancestors, essentially unchanged after 500 million years. According to the article, Cousin of the Jellyfish Spurs Fresh theories on Seeing Red By William J. Broad scientists have suggested the hexagonal tubes they have found may be bacteria farms, worm burrows (or both), or the trace fossils of decayed compressed sponges that have long ago been scavanged.

The paper even suggests such a sponge may have ties to the Ediacaran fauna, a class of bizarre creatures that preceeded the Cambrian Explosion. There's one other candidate for Paleodictyon's identiy: a xenophyophore. (William J. Broad 2005) They are the subject for another blog post, but the short, short version is that they're gigantic single-celled organisms big enough to fit in the palm of your hand, which (like slime molds!) are multinucleate and feed by engulfment using pseudopodia, and (unlike slime molds) inhabit casings they put together with odd things lying around, including (sometimes) their own ...