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SIMULATIONS OF EVOLUTIONARY RADIATIONS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO UNDERSTANDING THE PROBABILITY OF A CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION
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ABSTRACT-A molecular survey of animal phylogeny (Wray et al., 1996) recovered the presumed correct temporal order of the phylogenetic splits Protostomata-Deuterostomata, Echinodermata-Chordata, and Agnatha-Gnathostomata in studies of six of seven gene sequences. This result raised the question of how this order could be recovered if all of the phyla had appeared in a Cambrian "explosion" of less than 10 m.y., given the expected erratic nature of the molecular "clock." We simulated trees, and ...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
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Early kin of vertebrates found in China. (fossil of Cathaymyrus diadexas found in southwest China may be oldest known chordate)(Brief Article)
Science News
; Looking something like a tiny squashed eel, a newfound fossil from southwest China will not win any beauty contests. Yet this 530-million-year-old specimen from Earth's Cambrian period holds a special allure for paleontologists. It may be the oldest known chordate, the phylum to which humans and
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Tempo and mode of early animal evolution: inferences from rocks, Hox, and molecular clocks
Paleobiology
; Abstract.-One of the enduring puzzles to Stephen Jay Gould about life on Earth was the cause or causes of the fantastic diversity of animals that exploded in the fossil record starting around 530 Ma-the Cambrian explosion. In this contribution, we first review recent phylogenetic and molecular
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In the Blink of an Eye: How Vision Sparked the Big Bang of Evolution
Northeastern Naturalist
; In the Blink of an Eye: How Vision Sparked the Big Bang of Evolution. Andrew Parker. 2003. Basic Books, New York, N.Y. 316pp. $15.00. Paperback. ISBN 0465054382. The Cambrian Explosion, which occurred about 550 million years ago, was a time of dramatic increase in the diversity of life on this
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EYES KEY TO THEORY FOR EARLY EXPLOSION OF LIFE
The Boston Globe
; Chances are, you don't spend a lot of time thinking about trilobites, those now-extinct crustaceans that lived 500 million years ago. But, according to Oxford University zoologist Andrew Parker, you should. Trilobites were the first animals with eyes, and in his new book, "In the Blink of an Eye,"
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Evolution: Getting to the Gut of the Matter
The Washington Post
; The most spectacular burst of evolutionary diversification in Earth's history -- the so-called Cambrian explosion that happened 544 million years ago and created most of today's animal body plans -- may have been the result of a less celebrated event: the origin of feces. In the July 6 Nature, John
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