Palaeontology News: sponge origins solved? Or... not. скачать в хорошем качестве

Palaeontology News: sponge origins solved? Or... not.

Sponges are crucial for understanding the origin of animals, and the Cambrian Explosion. They are one of the first groups of living animals to evolve, and most of them have a preservable skeleton, making them essential in palaeontological investigations of the earliest animals. However, they don't have a deep Ediacaran fossil record, despite expectations. A recent paper has been announced quite widely as solving the problem of the conflict of molecular clocks and sponges. It's a phylogenomic study that tried to reconstruct the ancestral sponges, and finds that it all makes sense when spicules are convergently and independently evolved in each class. Are we convinced? Not on your nelly (as they say). Join us as we break down some of the biggest problems with this analysis, and see why you shouldn't trust everything you see in the news... Warning: this may be a bit of a rant. The paper is available here: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1... Presented by Joe Botting and Lucy Muir, independent palaeontologists and Honorary Research Fellows at the National Museum Wales. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Channel Membership: to support the channel for £3.99 per month, please investigate the 'join' button underneath the video. You can expect 2-3 extra videos per month, showing current research, related mainly to the Ordovician Castle Bank Biota