A recent genetic study seems to show that the comb jellies (a phylum which look like a simpler version of jelly fish) was the first taxon to split from the main animal tree.
This is surprising in a way; since sponges are the simplest extant animals, it was assumed that
Porifera was the first to branch off, the complexity of the rest of the animal kingdom being assumed to be due to the complexity of the common ancestor.
But if Ctenophora did branch off first, there are a couple of intriguing possibilities: either the last common ancestor of extant animals was already relatively complex and sponges then evolved to be simpler, or Ctenophora and the non-sponge animals represent two branches that evolved complexity independently.
Fascinating stuff. I got this from
Theology Web, where there has already been a bit of a discussion.
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Added the "(Re: comb jellies)" to the topic title.
Speaking personally, I find few things more awesome than contemplating this vast and majestic process of evolution, the ebb and flow of successive biotas through geological time. Creationists and others who cannot for ideological or religious reasons accept the fact of evolution miss out a great deal, and are left with a claustrophobic little universe in which nothing happens and nothing changes.
--
M. Alan Kazlev