Re: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION (no, not an industrial accident in Wales ...)
Very interesting and great pictures Rob, they remind me of the aliens in the space comics I used to read as a kid, little did I know such creatures existed on our own planet. I think the world is a lot older than the experts make out it is, so is life on it older, I would even imagine that there were civilisations long before we know of, if it were not for fossils and rock carvings we would know very little about the past, makes you wonder what the folks in another billion years will have to help them understand us, can't see all this digital stuff they are storing our records on lasting that long, maybe that's what happened to the old civilisations, everything on computer then bang!, time to get the old hammer and chisel out again methinks.Re: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION (no, not an industrial accident in Wales ...)
Jem, the period before the Cambrian period, known as the pre-Cambrian, lasted from the formation of the Earth, approximately 4.5 Gigayears ago, to the Cambrian, 0.5 Gigayears ago.Re: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION (no, not an industrial accident in Wales ...)
Indeed, trilobites were in existence half a billion years ago, but your third "photo" begs the question of the bi-ped under water and, in the same "photo" the cosyness of the two creatures cuddled up in what looks like an oval aluminium container ready to be cooked for dinner also looks a bit strange!Re: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION (no, not an industrial accident in Wales ...)
Ha ha! Yes Mollie, it does look a bit like an ape like biped shambling along doesn't it? However on close inspection, the 'arm' is in fact another of those sponge type things in the background and the 'two' creatures in the frying pan are actually just one, moving away from the foreground. It looks like some sort of primitive arthropod, much like the sea-slater of today which lives in crevices in shoreline rocks.Re: THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION (no, not an industrial accident in Wales ...)
Moving forward in time some 300 to 400 million years to the age of the dinosaurs, the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic eras, it now appears that many of the smaller dinosaurs actually had primitive feathers as shown by feather shaped impressions in certain fossils and recently, I believe, trace amounts of beta-keratin (the principle protein in modern bird feathers) has been found. This gives much greater weight to the theory that birds evolved directly from small Therapods via such creatures as Archaeopteryx (ancient bird). It is not certain as to whether Archaeopterx could fly or was simply a glider, although probably a superior glider to the Pterosaurs due to much better control of the flight surfaces via the feathers. Despite what the gainsayers say, this to my mind, is proof positive of evolution in action.
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