What Does The Cambrian Explosion Tell Us About Evolution?

Over the past few centuries, humans have been questioning and debating over what makes evolution true. In Jerry Coyne’s work, Why Evolution is True, he noted two kinds of evidence from Darwin’s theory of evolution. The first evidence includes the six testable predictions of evolution: evolution, gradualism, speciation, common-ancestry, natural selection, and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change. The second evidence that Coyne noted in his work is the retrodiction. In Coyne’s work, Why Evolution is True, a retrodiction is the facts and data that are not necessarily predicted by the theory of evolution but it makes sense only in the light of the theory of evolution. Retrodiction uses present theories to explain events that happens in the past. Since evolution is a slow process, theories could not be tested. Therefore, we explain the existence of vestigial structures and how humans share a common ancestor with fish through the theory of evolution. Throughout the text, examples of retrodiction are the imperfect adaptation of a panda’s thumb and gill slits in the beginning stages of a human embryo. Common ancestry is proven by the existence of fossils and these evidences proves that evolution is true.

Talks, T. (2013, March 30). Genetically Evolved Technology: Luke Bawazer at TEDxWarwick 2013. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BljY3_i3gfw

Over the last several years, evolution has been playing an increasingly important role in determining how various species are evolving. This is because ecology will have an impact on how quickly a particular organism is able to adapt (with: the unique challenges for a particular environment). To determine the effect that this is having requires carefully examining different species over the course of many years. This will be accomplished by comparing these changes on Darwin and Wallace Islands. Once this occurs, is when specific insights will be provided that are highlighting the underlying challenges affecting the development of organisms. This is the point that these transformations will be evident among the various life forms. (Fasolo, 2011, pp. 53 68)

As seen with Anolis, single species of organisms have the ability to undergo adaptive radiation and become new species by filling niches in a given environment. This is prevalent not only in Anolis, but other model organisms as well, such as finches, sticklebacks, and cichlids. All of these organisms have gone through the similar mechanisms and processes to evolve into different species. Alike to Anolis, they have gone through reproductive isolation, adaptation, and convergent evolution. Due to a poor fossil record of Anolis, the other model organisms may give better outlook on how they have diverged overtime. Further investigations on all of these organisms and their evolutionary mechanisms would not only give better a better idea of ecological speciation, but more comprehension on the origin of all

They must be eukaryotic, meaning they have nucleus, and in the domain Eukarya. In the Linnaean classification this could be in the kingdom Protista like a paramecium. Another Linnaean classification of this could be in kingdom Animalia, since they are heterotrophs and their cells contain a nucleus. They could be grouped as predators, since the organism is engulfing another organism. They could also be grouped based on their locomotion. They could have cilia, legs, or even flagella.

Almost every metazoan phylum with hard parts, and many that lack hard parts, made its first appearance in the Cambrian. The only modern phylum with an adequate fossil record to appear after the Cambrian was the phylum Bryozoa, which is not known before the early Ordovician. A few mineralized animal fossils, including sponge spicules and probable worm tubes, are known from the Vendian period immediately preceding the

The late Stephen Jay Gould, a noted paleontologist who once described himself as an “agnostic leaning towards atheism,” wrote the classic treatise Evolution as Fact and Theory for Discover magazine back in 1981. His distinguished career and scientific achievements did earn him respect amongst his peers, but to the general public he is best known for his popular science writings and, to smaller circles, as a champion of evolution. As his treatise was written for a non-academic, science themed magazine, a basic understanding of science, and specifically evolutionary mechanics, was assumed of his audience. The treatise itself is on the often overlapping distinction between “theory” and “fact”; two words, he asserts, that creationists

"New standards pointed out about that discrepancies in a molecular evidence has challenged the evolutionary theory of common ancestry of all living things and that whether microevolution can be extrapolated to explain macro evolutionary changes is controversial".(LeBeau, 2007)

The fossil allows us to reconstruct relationships between prehistoric creatures and those found today. It was discovered that the fish had resided in a shallow stream but obtained arm and leg bones similar to an animal as well. This allowed the fish to push-ups. By explaining experiments by various genetic researchers, there was a gene discovered called Sonic hedgehog. This gene is responsible for the shaping of hands, fins, or paws. Sonic hedgehog’s normal function can be disrupted by the recombination of its digits. This is the gene that explains that there is no emergence of a new DNA, but, rather, the gene was recombined in a new way. Most of the text elaborates on the close relations between invertebrates and unicellular creatures as well far more complex living

During the Pre-Cambrian era specifically the Proterozoic periods’ there was numerous orogenic events that were crucial in shaping the Pre-Cambrian craton. The first major orogenic event in the early part of the Proterozoic was the Penokean orogeny, which is shown in the record by major deformations and some high-grade metamorphic rocks, and it also includes some igneous rocks in the form of intrusions. These were followed by andesitic volcanism over the entire region, and the appearance of granite. Next, there was some low-grade metamorphism and the appearances of plutons over the area in the Middle Proterozoic. Rocks that were involved with the Penokean orogenic event are shown in the Superior province on top of the basement rock, and they

Glaciation that are widespread can be identified based on the subglacial tillite, which is a thick layer of sediments that settle down beneath glaciers or ice caps. On top of this subglacial tillite layer is deposited marine carbonate, also known as cap carbonate. Based on their paleolatitude designated by glacial sediments’ paleomagnetism, it can be determined that these deposits are from equator region. The interaction between two types of sediments, marine (like carbonate) and subgacially deposited sediments, indicate that the glaciers had approached marine coastlines.

There are about thirty modern animal phyla, including chordates, arthropods, annelids, corals, sponges, mollusks and echinoderms. All of which trace back to the Cambrian time period, 530 to 525 million years ago.

Sponges (Porifera), the basal animal group (left), composed of an internal skeleton of spicules of calcite or silica, and forming reefs. There were

According to scientists, one of the most extraordinary bursts of evolution ever known was the Cambrian Explosion. For most of the nearly 4 billion years that life has existed on Earth, evolution produced little beyond bacteria, plankton, and multi-celled algae. Then, about between 570 and 530 million years ago, another burst of diversification occurred. This stunning period is termed the "Cambrian explosion," taking the name of the geological age in which the earlier part occurred. A recent study revealed that life evolved during the Cambrian Period at a rate about five times faster than today. But it was certainly not as rapid as an explosion; the changes seems to have taken around 30 million years, and some stages took 5 to

There are only three basic kinds of metazoans: sponges, cnidarians, and worms. One can imagine scenarios for the divergence of the three great metazoan groups. All of them solved the problem of developing to larger size and complexity, but in different ways.