Or, just like dinossaurs, we don’t know how they actually looked like because fossile records only contain bones.
we know almost exactly how psittacosaurus looked:
How
80’s haircuts
Other tissues can become fossilized but it’s less common as the conditions need to be just right. That’s how we know some dinosaurs had feathers and what their skin texture was like.
Cambrian genera like Hallucigenia completely lacked bones and we have numerous fossils of them from deposits of shale. That’s how we know what they looked like: tiny Lovecraftian horrors.
OP acting like they got a chance against #1 smh…
#3 still lives today in the form of night terrors, seriously wtf is that thing?
Honestly 2 gets me. Hallucagenia!
Did they really look like this or were there big fat blubbery bits that didn’t survive fossilisation
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
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.
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.
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…
First one looks like an urchin with pattern baldness
My first thought was “a brain with blades in it” and now I wonder how different our answers in a Rorschach Test would be…
In my mind the brain blades can extend and retract wolverine style.
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?
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.
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.
Imagine the future with megafishs, having evolved… fish nets ?.. and lasers!.. and and barbecues…
I mean, it follows that eventually evolution would produce fauna that would take apart a nuclear submarine in seconds.
Lasers and barbecues not so much yet, but Blue Whales, Humback Whales, and Whale Sharks have effectively turned their teeth into fishing nets.
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.
Sharks with lazers on thier head! Because everyone deserves a warm meal.
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.
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.
I could swear I have built all of those in Spore at some point.
You know what they’re doing? Their goddamned best.
My favourite is Sharovipteryx with the wing on its hind legs.
thanks for introducing me to natures thigh highs.
They were figuring shit out so we don’t have to.
It’s just a phase.
It was the N64 era of evolution.
It was a different meta back then. Bottom right is as apex predator
Just play Spore and you will understand
Was spore worthwhile?
At the time it was revolutionary, till this day I haven’t seen any attempts at recreating it. I did prefer the earlier 2 stages tho (as in evolution stages), later it wasnt as much fun.
It was more revolutionary the day before it was released than the day after though. That game was my first lesson in not getting hyped about something just based on what marketers were saying.
The game could have used at least a few more years of baking. The earlier stages were more complete, though IMO even they lacked breadth and depth. But the later ones were disappointing in their simplicity.
Be preoared then: https://revolutionarygamesstudio.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779200/Thrive/
Actually, they working on the microbe stage for years now, but their goal is actually the whole Spore experience.
That’s cool, pretty cheap too. I hope they finish it eventually
