‘Evolutionary Misfit’ Finds Its Way Into the Family Tree

steve001

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Hallucigenia sparsa was a spiked, 14-legged worm that lived in the Cambrian sea. It was originally described as an “evolutionary misfit” because scientists had been unable to link it to modern-day animals. Now, reporting in Nature, researchers explain how the strange-looking creature might fit into the family tree. Paleontologist and co-author Martin Smith describes how the claws of the worm helped to unlock the mystery.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...isfit-finds-its-way-into-the-family-tree.html
 
Being cynical, one can fit anything to an evolutionary base. Evolutionary psychologists do it all the time, e.g "oh, people are afraid of trees because this one time many many years ago some trees were scary and so we evolved neural pathways to identify and run away from trees." Even though what counts as the result of evolution, cultural bias or even personal bias is a huge jumble of carefully balanced messes, call it evolution and everything is suddenly "explained."
 
12280-v1-490x.JPG

Hallucigenia sparsa was a spiked, 14-legged worm that lived in the Cambrian sea. It was originally described as an “evolutionary misfit” because scientists had been unable to link it to modern-day animals. Now, reporting in Nature, researchers explain how the strange-looking creature might fit into the family tree. Paleontologist and co-author Martin Smith describes how the claws of the worm helped to unlock the mystery.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...isfit-finds-its-way-into-the-family-tree.html

That's some HP Lovecraft stuff....
 
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