• @Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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      4014 days ago

      Unlikely for there to be bubbly bits. These are bugs, so we know their shape because their exoskeleton (which is what fossilizes) is their shape. Fish haven’t evolved yet

      • @leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
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        814 days ago

        These seem to be illustrations of Burgess Shale organisms, Burgess Shale being renowned for the excellent preservation of soft tissues in its fossils, so the bubbly bits were actually quite well preserved, if maybe a bit squished and deflated.

      • @galoisghost@aussie.zone
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        214 days ago

        Thanks. I looked it up.

        You saying these are bugs tickles my funny bone imagining a metre long anomalcaris scuttling out from under the fridge, like a scene from a Cronenberg movie.

  • Avid Amoeba
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    14 days ago

    Life got pretty boring following the last mass extinction. So many mammals evolved from that mouse which survived that we all have the same basic features from hamsters to humans. So much so that mice are a good experimental model for humans…

  • @azi
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    2114 days ago

    First one looks like an urchin with pattern baldness

  • Neon 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇹🇼🇮🇱
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    1814 days ago

    okay, but seriously, why did they evolve so differently than modern-day fish? and if we magically reintroduced them, would they be more fit or less fit than modern-day fish?

    • @pyrflie@lemm.ee
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      3814 days ago

      Less, one of the major genetic innovations of the late Cambrian was development of jaws. The vast majority of these species would get wrecked by modern fish in moments.

      • @maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        1914 days ago

        It’s so cool to think we are living in an era of modern superfish, which would absolutely destroy any other fish that ever lived, since fish were upgraded over millions of years to where they are.

          • @pyrflie@lemm.ee
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            1114 days ago

            Lasers and barbecues not so much yet, but Blue Whales, Humback Whales, and Whale Sharks have effectively turned their teeth into fishing nets.

          • @SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            714 days ago

            It is wild to remember we’re all descended from fish. I mostly refer to our primate tendencies (listen to a kid scream and tell me we’re not descended from apes) but a lot of our parts, like our skeletons, are highly modified fish parts. It’s crazy.

          • @maynarkh@feddit.nl
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            214 days ago

            I mean, it follows that eventually evolution would produce fauna that would take apart a nuclear submarine in seconds.

    • @ImInLoveWithLife@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      I am not a biologist or really anyone with any authority on the matter. Just some guy who likes to read and think about all manner of subjects, so I cannot adequately explain anything here, but if you’re interested in the why, it really boils down to the simplicity of morphological structures early in the development of life on earth, to more complex as evolution did its thing. That’s not to say that evolution has a goal, just that added complexity often means greater advantages. Also, it isn’t as though nothing similar to these creatures exist at all today. These basal forms were a prerequisite to the life we see in the oceans (and on land) today.

      Definitely stay interested and read more about morphology and evolution in general! Fascinating stuff.

    • Schadrach
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      313 days ago

      One of the big advances around then was being able to be an effective predator at all. It’s likely one of the big causes for the Cambrian explosion was the arms race to not be eaten vs being able to eat your neighbors effectively.