A2: Microbes in the News

Title: Microbes Set the Stage for First Animals

Date:  April 8, 2017

Authors:  Amanda Doyle

Link:  https://www.space.com/36403-microbes-set-stage-for-first-animals.html

Summary:  Several researchers  have found what they describe as “…odd creatures, most of which have no evidence of a circulatory or digestive system…”. These creatures existed around 541 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. These creatures, the scientists argue, might not have been animals at all.

Connection:  We have talked about the eveloution of life on Earth, from microbial life to multicellular life. Somewhere between singlecelled life and multicellular life, these creatures showed up which we thought might have been the ancesters of animal life; but other kinds of life might have existed at the same time.

Critical Analysis: This article did a pretty good job explaining the science behind these researchers findings. They explain how the enviroment changed over time and alowed these creatures to evolve along with others.

Question: Do you think these microbes could  still be around today in another form? Perhaps like the colonial Portuguese man o’ war?