Very Old, Very Deep: Places Of Ancient Interest

[AB Editor]

Afternoon.

They're looking for marvellous thing in Ontario: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/17/4338844/billion-year-old-cache-of-water-is-oldest-yet-found-on-earth

"If organisms are present in the water, which a team of researchers hopes to ascertain within a year, they will likely have followed a different evolutionary path to that of the world above."

Which is interesting.

It reminded me of the wonderful bit from "Encounters at the end of the world" featured below.

What I was going to ask is, where else in the world do we see (or we believe we are likely to see) something taking an ancient right hand turn (evolutionary speaking)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc9tdLNafws

[Mosaic]

There have been all kinds of evolutionary blind alleys - they are difficult to find and identify though.
The best example is the critters from the Burgess Shales: http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofiles/lagerstatten/Burgess/

There's no evolutionary advantage to having 5 digits - it's purely by chance that we're descended from a tetrapod with 5 rather than 7 or 8 digits.
We could have been bostin' banjo players.

[Clanad]

I'm not sure, at least at this point, what significance the discovery may have since 3.4 billion year old fossils have been in hand for some time (Seen here: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/08/worlds-oldest-fossils-found-in-a.html ). outstrips the water by a couple of billion years.

Significantly, the fossils found in Australia as well as very early finds in the "Tar Sands" in the Canadian Province of Alberta, seem to be more advanced than the ones described in the article. Remains to be seen though...

[Clanad]

If I could just type faster, Mosaic...

[sandyRoe]

Australia. Loads of strange critters there.

[LazyGun]

I seem to remember some recent story about a scientific team out in the Antarctic trying to do something very similar, and failing...

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2012/12/27/britain_suspends_exploratory_drilling_of_antarctic_lake.html

[Clanad]

It was finally a success, LG... seen here: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/28/pay-dirt-antarctic-drilling-reaches-lake-surface/

No reports yet, though...

[LazyGun]

Had not seen that report, Clanad, so thanks. I knew the Russians and Americans both had teams on similar drilling projects elsewhere in the Antarctic, but had not heard that the Americans had been successful. It will be interesting to see any results....

[AB Editor]

Thanks all!

"Indeed, our view on the early evolution of animals would have been slanted towards groups that have hard parts if it were not for the Burgess Shale." - Oo-er Mrs Darwin.

I'd actually never considered that however; our picture of things that existed through a series of winnowing experiences has also been chopped back by only certain types of animal being suitable for rocking preservation! The creature that can best adapt to preservation (of its skeleton, shape, etc) is the one that actually goes down in history.

Not that dinosaurs cared much for legacy I suppose!

[naomi24]

I listened to Professor Chris Ballentine talking about this on Radio 4 yesterday, and I almost posted a link but I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22544761

[wildwood]

Some of the deep caves remain partly unexplored because of access difficulties. The wildlife in many have come to an evolutionary nose because the contact with other life forms has been cut off many millions of years ago. Even some accessible caves produce interesting life.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7172905/Deep-cave-dive-reveals-NZ-native

[AB Editor]

Thanks :)