New big fossil find in Canada’s Burgess Shale area features internal organs

_{Denyse O'Leary

February 12, 2014

Cambrian explosion, News}

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The new site is also in the Burgess Shale formation, and seems to rival the 1909 original in fossil diversity and preservation, researchers report today (Feb. 11) in the journal Nature Communications. In just two weeks, the research team collected more than 3,000 fossils representing 55 species. Fifteen of these species are new to science. [Gallery: Amazing Cambrian Fossils from Canada’s Marble Canyon]

“The rate at which we are finding animals — many of which are new — is astonishing, and there is a high possibility that we’ll eventually find more species here than at the original Yoho National Park site, and potentially more than from anywhere else in the world,” said Jean-Bernard Caron, lead study author and an invertebrate paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

About 100,000 close to us than the original Wonderful Life fossils. Blink of a geologist’s eye.

The fossils are better preserved than the originals, and feature internal organs, including retinas, corneas, neural tissue, guts and even a possible heart and liver.

Paper. Burgess Shale-type fossil assemblages provide the best evidence of the ‘Cambrian explosion’. Here we report the discovery of an extraordinary new soft-bodied fauna from the Burgess Shale. Despite its proximity (ca. 40?km) to Walcott’s original locality, the Marble Canyon fossil assemblage is distinct, and offers new insights into the initial diversification of metazoans, their early morphological disparity, and the geographic ranges and longevity of many Cambrian taxa. The arthropod-dominated assemblage is remarkable for its high density and diversity of soft-bodied fossils, as well as for its large proportion of new species (22% of total diversity) and for the preservation of hitherto unreported anatomical features, including in the chordate Metaspriggina and the arthropod Mollisonia. The presence of the stem arthropods Misszhouia and Primicaris, previously known only from the early Cambrian of China, suggests that the palaeogeographic ranges and longevity of Burgess Shale taxa may be underestimated. (paywall, but glance at figures free)

Any guesses what the internal organs will show? Will they be the same as or different from typical representatives of the phyla today?

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Comments

Obviously, these fossilized structures "musta" been non-functional transitional evolutionary forms of eyes, precursors to functional versions many millions of years in the future, once again proving Darwinism! Note that Darwinism is so powerful that evolution can actually radiate backward in time as well as forward in time! O.o -QQuerius_{February 12, 2014
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reminds of this find: Complex Arthropod Eyes Found in Early Cambrian - June 2011 Excerpt: Complex eyes with modern optics from an unknown arthropod, more complex than trilobite eyes, have been discovered in early Cambrian strata from southern Australia.,,, Here we report exceptionally preserved fossil eyes from the Early Cambrian (~515 million years ago) Emu Bay Shale of South Australia, revealing that some of the earliest arthropods possessed highly advanced compound eyes, each with over 3,000 large ommatidial lenses and a specialized ‘bright zone’. These are the oldest non-biomineralized eyes known in such detail, with preservation quality exceeding that found in the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang deposits. Non-biomineralized eyes of similar complexity are otherwise unknown until about 85 million years later. The arrangement and size of the lenses indicate that these eyes belonged to an active predator that was capable of seeing in low light. The eyes are more complex than those known from contemporaneous trilobites and are as advanced as those of many living forms. They provide further evidence that the Cambrian explosion involved rapid innovation in fine-scale anatomy as well as gross morphology, http://crev.info/content/110629-complex_arthropod_eyes_found_in_early_cambrian Modern optics in the eyes of an Early Cambrian arthropod - June 2011 Excerpt: 'the Emu Bay Shale, which provides exquisite preservation of Early Cambrian animals, has now supplied us with the earliest example of an non-trilobite arthropod eye. Of the seven specimens recovered to date, three are spectacular for the detail revealed and stunning because they document eyes that "are as advanced as those of many living forms" http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2011/07/01/modern_optics_in_the_eyes_of_an_early_ca 500 million-year-old super predator had remarkable vision - Dec 07, 2011 Excerpt: The fossils represent compound eyes - the multi-faceted variety seen in arthropods such as flies, crabs and kin - and are amongst the largest to have ever existed, with each eye up to 3 cm in length and containing over 16,000 lenses. The number of lenses and other aspects of their optical design suggest that Anomalocaris would have seen its world with exceptional clarity whilst hunting in well-lit waters. Only a few arthropods, such as modern predatory dragonflies, have similar resolution. The discovery of powerful compound eyes in Anomalocaris confirms it is a close relative of arthropods, and has other far-reaching evolutionary implications. It demonstrates that this particular type of visual organ appeared and was elaborated upon very early during arthropod evolution, http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-million-year-old-super-predator-remarkable-vision.html Anomalocaris – Sea Monster – video http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ice47loNmsc The Trilobite had good (remarkable?) vision as well: Evolution vs. The Trilobite Eye - Andy McIntosh http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4032589/ The Optimal Trilobite Eye - per Dr. Don Johnson - Programming of Life page 68-66 and appendix F: Trilobites suddenly appeared in the Cambrian (lowest fossil-bearing) stratum with no record of ancestry. The trilobite eye is made of optically transparent calcium carbonate (calcite, the same mineral of its shell) with a precisely aligned optical axis that eliminates double images and two lenses affixed together to eliminate spherical aberrations [McC98, Gal00]. Paleontologist Niles Eldredge observed, “These lenses--technically termed aspherical, aplanatic lenses--optimize both light collecting and image formation better than any lens ever conceived. We can be justifiably amazed that these trilobites, very early in the history of life on earth, hit upon the best possible lens that optical physics has ever been able to formulate” [Eld76]. Notice these lenses weren’t just good as, but were better than anything modern optical physicists have been able to conceive! ,,, “The design of the trilobite’s eye lens could well qualify for a patent disclosure” [Lev93p58].,,, The trilobite lens is particularly intriguing since the only other animal to use inorganic focusing material is man. The lens may be classified as a prosthetic device since it was non-biological, which also means the lens itself, with apparently no DNA inherent within, was not subject to Darwinian evolution. The manufacturing and controlling of the lenses were obviously biological processes, with an unknown number DNA-prescribed proteins (each with a prescriptive manufacturing program) for collecting and processing the raw materials to manufacture the precision lenses and create the refracting interface between the two lenses. The lenses do not decompose as any other animal’s lenses would, so they are subject to rigorous scientific investigation,,, Since no immediate precursors of trilobites have been found, Darwinists are without any evidence as to how an organism with an eye as complex as a trilobite could have arisen,,, especially in,, the lowest multi-cellular fossil-bearing stratum,,, Appendix F: “Trilobites had solved a very elegant physical problem and apparently knew about Fermat’s principle, Abbe’s sine law, Snell’s laws of refraction and the optics of birefringent crystals” [Cla75] “the rigid trilobite doublet lens had remarkable depth of field (near and far focusing) and minimal spherical aberration” [Gon07] Physicist Riccardo Levi-Setti observes: “In fact, this doublet is a device so typically associated with human invention that its discovery comes as something of a shock. The realization that trilobites developed and used such devices half a billion years ago makes the shock even greater. And a final discovery - that the refracting interface between the two elements in a trilobite’s eyes was designed in accordance with optical constructions worked out by Descartes and Huygens in the mid-seventeenth century - borders on sheer science fiction” [Lev93p57]. “The trilobites already had a highly advanced visual system. In fact, so far as we can tell from the fossil record thus far discovered, trilobite sight was far and away the most advanced in Kingdom Animalia at the base of the Cambrian,,, There is no other known occurrence of calcite eyes in the fossil record” [FM-trib].bornagain77_{February 12, 2014
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WOW!
'Mother Lode' of (Cambrian Explosion) Fossils Discovered in Canada - Feb 11, 2014 Excerpt: Retinas, corneas, neural tissue, guts and even a possible heart and liver were found.,,, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mother-lode-of-fossils-discovered-in-canada/
bornagain77_{February 12, 2014
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To Charles Darwin the 'eye' was an organ whose origins gave him fits. He couldn't rest easy, and, in the first edition of the OofSp he even mentions the "Creator" in a passing way, so unsure was he of how the eye came about. And, now, "retinas" are found in the Cambrian (Silurian for Darwin) with likely no known antecedents. A complete nightmare for Darwin! And, yet, we know our Darwinist friends will, shrug, say, "Oh this is no big deal," and then invent incoherent, illogical, 'just-so' stories as to how this could have happened. How utterly sad. And, "Another day, and another bad day for Darwinism!"PaV_{February 12, 2014
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