Single cell giant up-ends early evolution


	Single cell giant up-ends early evolution

pokkets

12-15-2008 9:58 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0df3d2f7-b983-4447-a03a-15f1b7a49429/BD23D013-5230-47AC-A965-1558C859F819/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest" href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest" style="font-size: 11px;">www.abc.net.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest">Michael Reilly</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P class="first">Slowly rolling across the ocean floor, a humble single celled creature is poised to change our understanding of how complex life evolved on earth.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>The grape-sized <EM>Gromia sphaerica</EM>, a distant relative of microscopic amoebas, had previously been discovered lying motionless at the bottom of the Arabian Sea. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/B0C7BA99-4470-4EB5-A23E-2015242D77FB" alt="giant deep sea protist" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest">these single celled critters, also known as giant deep sea protists, aren't supposed to be able to leave trails</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>The oldest fossils of animal trails, called 'trace fossils', date to around 580 million years ago, and palaeontologists believed they must have been made by multicellular animals with complex, symmetrical bodies.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>But <EM>G. sphaerica's</EM> traces are the spitting image of the old, Precambrian fossils; two small ridges line the outside of the trail, and one thin bump runs down the middle.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/24/2427811.htm?site=science&topic=latest">says Professor Shuhai Xiao of <A target="_blank" href="http://www.vt.edu/">Virginia Polytechnic Institute</A>. "The fact that protists can make traces has important implications for how we interpret many trace fossils."</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/BD23D013-5230-47AC-A965-1558C859F819/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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