After Big Bang
Marine Biology
Animal evolution: Sponges really are oldest animal phylum
Who came first — sponges or comb jellies? A new study by an team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich reaffirms that sponges are the oldest animal phylum — and restores the classical view of early animal evolution, which recent molecular analyses had challenged. The answer to the question of whether the sponges or the comb … Continue reading
Spectacular Moroccan fossils redefine evolutionary timelines
Some of the oldest marine animals on the planet, including armoured worm-like forms and giant, lobster like sea creatures, survived millions of years longer than previously thought, according to a spectacularly preserved fossil formation from southeastern Morocco. The Lower Fezouata formation has been revealing exciting discoveries about life in the Ordovician — around 485 – … Continue reading
Tiny new fossil helps rewrite crab evolution, sheds lights on late Jurassic marine world
A new article describes a 150-million-year-old crab larva fossil specimen from southern Germany. The fossil provides critical evidence for understanding the early rise of crabs. A paper in the journal Nature Communications (March 9, 2015) co-written by NHM Crustacea curator Dr. Jody Martin describes a 150-million-year-old crab larva fossil specimen from southern Germany. The new … Continue reading
Morphing Manganese: New Discovery Alters Understanding of Chemistry That Moves Elements Through Natural World
An often-overlooked form of manganese, an element critical to many life processes, is far more prevalent in ocean environments than previously known, according to a study led by University of Delaware researchers that was published this week in Science. The discovery alters understanding of the chemistry that moves manganese and other elements, like oxygen and … Continue reading
Disappearance of Coral Reefs, Drastically Altered Marine Food Web On the Horizon
If history’s closest analog is any indication, the look of the oceans will change drastically in the future as the coming greenhouse world alters marine food webs and gives certain species advantages over others. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, paleobiologist Richard Norris and colleagues show that the ancient greenhouse world had few large … Continue reading
Dawn of Carnivores Explains Animal Boom in Distant Past
A science team that includes researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has linked increasing oxygen levels and the rise and evolution of carnivores (meat eaters) as the force behind a broad explosion of animal species and body structures millions of years ago. Led by Erik Sperling of Harvard University, the scientists … Continue reading
First Global Atlas of Marine Plankton Reveals Remarkable Underwater World
Under the microscope, they look like they could be from another planet, but these microscopic organisms inhabit the depths of our oceans in nearly infinite numbers. To begin to identify where, when, and how much oceanic plankton can be found around the globe, a group of international researchers have compiled the first ever global atlas … Continue reading
Scientists Solve a 14,000-Year-Old Ocean Mystery
At the end of the last Ice Age, as the world began to warm, a swath of the North Pacific Ocean came to life. During a brief pulse of biological productivity 14,000 years ago, this stretch of the sea teemed with phytoplankton, amoeba-like foraminifera and other tiny creatures, who thrived in large numbers until the … Continue reading
Deep Sea Isolation: Hypersaline ‘Islands’ Harbor Unique Life
Deep in the ocean exist super salty anoxic basins that form ‘islands’ allowing evolution to vary between communities of ciliated plankton. These unique communities are presented in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Microbiology, and provide an opportunity to observe multiple results of evolution from the same stock and different solutions to environmental difficulties. About … Continue reading
Seeing Sea Stars: The Missing Link in Eye Evolution?
A study has shown for the first time that starfish use primitive eyes at the tip of their arms to visually navigate their environment. Research headed by Dr. Anders Garm at the Marine Biological Section of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, showed that starfish eyes are image-forming and could be an essential stage in … Continue reading
Picture of the day
After Big Bang 