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Author Topic:   Interesting development at the base of the animal tree (Re: comb jellies)
Chiroptera
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Message 1 of 4 (463432)
04-16-2008 7:08 PM


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

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by Dr Jack, posted 04-17-2008 6:47 AM Chiroptera has not replied
 Message 3 by Blue Jay, posted 04-17-2008 4:27 PM Chiroptera has not replied

Dr Jack
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Joined: 07-14-2003
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Message 2 of 4 (463440)
04-17-2008 6:47 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Chiroptera
04-16-2008 7:08 PM


A quote from the paper (which by the way, interesting stuff):
quote:
The placement of ctenophores (comb jellies) as the sister group to all other sampled metazoans is strongly supported in all our analyses. This result, which has not been postulated before, should be viewed as provisional until more data are considered from placozoans and additional sponges. If corroborated by further analyses, it would have major implications for early animal evolution, indicating either that sponges have been greatly simplified or that the complex morphology of ctenophores has arisen independently from that of other metazoans. Independent analyses of ribosomal and non-ribosomal proteins (Supplementary Information and Supplementary Fig. 10) indicate that support for this hypothesis (and for others presented for the first time here, such as Clade A and Clade B) is much greater in the combined analyses than in partitioned analyses with fewer genes. This may explain why these novel clades have not been recovered before, because support requires very broad gene sampling
Emphasis mine.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Chiroptera, posted 04-16-2008 7:08 PM Chiroptera has not replied

Blue Jay
Member (Idle past 2697 days)
Posts: 2843
From: You couldn't pronounce it with your mouthparts
Joined: 02-04-2008


Message 3 of 4 (463481)
04-17-2008 4:27 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Chiroptera
04-16-2008 7:08 PM


This is the title of the Theology Web article:
quote:
Shock: First Animal on Earth Was Surprisingly Complex
And, from then on, they intepret everything as two-faced pandering for the great religion of evolutionism.
It's frustrating to hear this sort of nonsense. Anybody who knows the slightest thing about the ToE should realize that the complexity of a modern animal does not necessitate its ancestor to be complex.
quote:
The first is that the comb jelly evolved its complexity
independent of other animals
after branching off to forge its own path. (emphasis mine)
It didn't start as complex, it evolved into complexity just like all other complex animals, but it did so separately.
Sorry, I had to make sure there was an answer to that: I couldn't just like sit.

I'm Thylacosmilus.
Darwin loves you.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Chiroptera, posted 04-16-2008 7:08 PM Chiroptera has not replied

Adminnemooseus
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Message 4 of 4 (463527)
04-17-2008 9:40 PM


Thread copied to the Interesting development at the base of the animal tree (Re: comb jellies) thread in the Creation/Evolution In The News forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.

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