Re: The Oldest Worms?

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Thu, 01 Oct 1998 20:48:27 -0500

At 08:30 PM 10/1/98 -0700, Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:
>If the discovery of a few presumed worm burrows is all it takes to unseat
>the Cambrian explosion, it must not have been much of an explosion after
>all! Having worked for years in the Cambrian, I have seen thousands of
>feet of 'burrowed' sediments that to this day have no burrowers, and most
>sedimentologists have no good explanation for their existence. They have
>been called everything from burrows of unknown organisms to fucoids
>(presumed casts of fucus...kelp), to purely sedimentary features. At this
>time, nobody I have talked to has a clue. So I wouldn't be too quick to
>throw out the Cambrian Explosion, which is worldwide in extent and
>universal in scope [with the possible exception of Bryozoa and perhaps
>Aschelmenthes(which have a miserable fossil record anyway), all of the
>major phyla of animals appear in the Cambrian] on the basis of the report
>in the popular press (or even in peer reviewed journals) of
>sedimentological features that look like burrows. In fact given the amount
>of effor that has been invested in teh Upper Precambrian lately, I would
>say quite the opposite is true. The longer we look, the more we are going
>to have to lean on worm tubes to support our suppositions that life existed
>before the uppermost Precambrian. Might I suggest another good read for
>those concerned about the early history of life and its origin (perhaps
>with more success than my last suggestion) is a book by Wallace Arthur
>(Cambridge Press, 1997) 'The Origin of Animal Body Plans: a study in
>evolutionary developmental biology'.

Art, Thanks for the info and challenge. What is happening today, I still
contend is that phanerozoic animal ancestors are being found in precambrian
and this is incompatible with the way creationists use the cambrian explosion.

What about the Doushantou fossils? That is a big payoff for precambrian
research.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
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