This was in all probability Gehling’s most damning criticism, since Seilacher was a number one skilled within the science of fossil preservation. However no much less critical have been his allegations that Seilacher misinterpreted the fossils themselves, maybe as a result of he was not sufficiently acquainted with them. Writing of Dickinsonia, Gehling noticed that “[e]xamination of a number of hundred specimens of this taxon reveals the presence of a number of traits that the ‘air mattress’ mannequin can’t accommodate” (Gehling 1991, 195, emphasis added). For instance, most specimens present a transparent distinction between their back and front ends, opposite to Seilacher’s claims. Some specimens additionally exhibit a crinking of particular person segments suggestive of muscular contraction and the opportunity of locomotion. In Gehling’s view, these options “level to Dickinsonia as a functioning coelomate-grate [animal], capable of react to sensory enter” (198). Related difficulties hooked up to different of Seilacher’s interpretations, main Gehling to conclude that it’s “[o]nly with a really broad brush [that] all Ediacaran organisms [can] be represented as fractal progress variations primarily based on the identical items of development” (202).
Regardless of these criticisms, the vendobiont speculation “initially attracted appreciable assist from paleontologists (Dunn and Liu 2019, 513). Arthropod specialist Jan Bergström noticed in 1991 that “most of the [Ediacaran] organisms… in all probability belong to a bunch of ‘quilted organisms’ which might not be animals and exhibit no shut similarity to bilaterians” (Bergström 1991, 32). Man Narbonne made an analogous declare in 1998, arguing that some Ediacarans in all probability represented “a failed experiment in Precambrian evolution” (Narbonne 1998, 1). These remarks present that sure elements of Seilacher’s interpretation discovered uptake amongst Precambrian paleontologists. But arguably a extra vital impact of Seilacher’s work was to “flip the dialogue of Ediacaran affinities from a monolith [into] a free-for-all” (Narbonne 2005, 431). Within the fifteen years following (Seilacher 1989), members of the Ediacaran biota have been interpreted as protists, lichens, fungi, colonial prokaryotes, and extinct photosynthetic “metacellulars” (the final suggestion was McMenamin’s). On the similar time, the vendobiont speculation “stimulated analysis in comparative biology, taphonomy, and ecology in an try and deduce the affinities of those pivotal fossils.” This has undermined the vendobiont speculation in something resembling its provocative, authentic kind. Nonetheless, what is maybe extra vital is that analysis on numerous features of Ediacaran biology stays a going concern. Right this moment there are extra researchers learning Ediacaran fossils than ever earlier than, and this appears unlikely to alter any time quickly.
* * *
A lot for the outrageous hypotheses. In Half 2, I’ll evaluate some latest philosophical work on hypothesis in geohistory and develop my account of “well-controlled” and “harmful hypothesis.” Then, I take advantage of these sources to investigate the reception of the outrageous hypotheses and to extract some provisional epistemic conclusions.
* Discover a hyperlink to Half 2 right here…
Alvarez, L.W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F. and Michel, H.V. (1980). “Extraterrestrial trigger for the end-Cretaceous extinction: experimental outcomes and theoretical interpretation.” Science 208:1095–1108.
Alvarez, W. and Muller, R.A. (1984). “Proof for crater ages for periodic impacts on the Earth.” Nature 308:718–720.
Nameless. “Miscasting the dinosaur’s horoscope.” New York Occasions letter to the editor. April 2, 1980. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/02/opinion/miscasting-the-dinosaur-s-horoscope.html.
Bergström, J. (1991). “Metazoan evolution across the Precambrian-Cambrian transition.” In A.M. Simonetta and S. Conway Morris (eds.), The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa, 25–34. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge College Press.
Buss, L.W. and Seilacher, A. (1994). “The Phylum Vendobionta: a sister group of the Eumetazoa?” Paleobiology 20:1–4.
Currie, A.M. (2018). Rock, Bone and Damage: An Optimist’s Information to the Historic Sciences. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.
Davis, W.M. (1926). “The worth of outrageous geological hypotheses.” Science 1636:463–8.
Davis, M., Hut, P. and Muller, R.A. (1984). “Extinction of species by periodic comet showers.” Nature 308:715–7.
Dunn, F.S. and Liu, A.G. (2019). “Viewing the Ediacaran biota as a failed experiment is unhelpful.” Nature Ecology & Evolution 3:512–4.
Gehling, J.G. (1990). “The case for Ediacaran fossil roots to the metazoan tree.” In B.P. Radhakrishna (ed.), The World of Martin Glaessner, 181–224. Bangalore: Geological Society of India.
Glaessner, M.F. (1959). “Precambrian Coelenterata from Australia, Africa and England.” Nature 183:1472–3.
Glaessner, M.F. (1961). “Pre-Cambrian animals.” Scientific American 204:72–8.
Glaessner, M.F. (1984). The Daybreak of Animal Life. A Biohistorical Examine. Cambridge: Cambridge College Press.
Glaessner, M.F. and Wade, M. (1966). “The late Precambrian fossils from Ediacara, South Australia.” Palaeontology 9:97–103.
Glaessner, M.F. and Wade, M. (1971). “The genus Conomedusites Glaessner and Wade and the diversification of the Cnidaria.” Paläontolische Zeitschrift 45:7–17.
Gould, S.J. (1985). “The cosmic dance of Siva.” In The Flamingo’s Smile: Reflections in Pure Historical past. New York: W.W. Norton and Firm.
Hallam, A. (1984). “The causes of mass extinctions.” Nature 308:686–7.
Hoffman, A. (1985). “Patterns of household extinction rely on definition and geological timescale.” Nature 315:659–62.
Marshall, C.R. (2023). Forty years later: the standing of the “Huge 5” mass extinctions. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction 1:e5. doi:10.1017/ext.2022.4
McMenamin, M.A.S. (2012). “Proof for a Triassic Kraken: Uncommon association of bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada.” twenty first Century Science and Expertise 24:55–8.
McMenamin, M.A.S. (2016). Dynamic Paleontology: Utilizing Quantification and Different Instruments to Decipher the Historical past of Life. Springer Cham.
McMenamin, M.A.S. and Schulte McMenamin, D.L. (2011). “Triassic Kraken: the Berlin Ichthyosaur loss of life assemblage interpreted as a large cephalopod midden.” Geological Society of America Abstracts with Packages 43:310.
McMenamin, M.A.S. and Schulte McMenamin, D.L. (2013). “The Kraken’s again: new proof concerning doable cephalopod association of ichthyosaur skeletons” Geological Society of America Abstracts with Packages 45:900.
Melott, A.L. and Bambach, R.Ok. (2010). ”Nemesis reconsidered.” Month-to-month Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, L99–L102.
Melott, A.L. and Bambach, R.Ok. (2017). “Feedback on: Periodicity within the extinction fee and doable astronomical causes – touch upon mass extinctions during the last 500 myr: an astronomical trigger? (Erlykin et al.).” Paleontology 60:911–20.
Myers, PZ. “Traces of a Triassic kraken?” Pharyngula. October 10, 2011. https://internet.archive.org/internet/20111013043139/https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/10/traces_of_a_triassic_kraken.php.
Narbonne, G.M. (1998). “The Ediacara biota: a terminal Neoproterozoic experiment within the evolution of life.” GSA Right this moment 8:1–6.
Narbonne, G.M. (2005). “The Ediacara biota: Neoproterozoic origin of animals and their ecosystems.” Annual Overview of Earth and Planetary Science 33:421–42.
Prothero, D. “Octopus’ backyard within the shale?” Skepticblog. November 2, 2011. https://www.skepticblog.org/2011/11/02/kraken-and-crackpots/.
Rampino, M.R. and Strothers, R.B. (1984). “Terrestrial mass extinctions, cometary impacts and the Solar’s movement perpendicular to the galactic airplane.” Nature 308:709–12.
Raup, D. (1999). The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Demise of Dinosaurs and the Methods of Science. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Raup, D. and Sepkoski, J.J. (1982). “Mass extinctions within the marine fossil file.” Science 215:1501–3
Raup, D. and Sepkoski, J.J. (1984). “Periodicity of extinctions within the geological previous.” Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 81:801–5
Schwartz, R.D. and James, P.B. (1984). “Periodic mass extinctions and the Solar’s oscillation concerning the galactic airplane.” Nature 308:712–3.
Seilacher, A. (1984). “Late Precambrian and Early Cambrian Metazoa; preservational or actual extinctions? In H.D. Holland and A.F. Trendall (eds.), Patterns of Change, 159–68. Berlin. Fed. Republic Ger.
Seilacher, A. (1989). “Vendozoa: organismic development within the Proterozoic Biosphere.” Lethaia 22:229–239.
Seilacher, A. (1992). “Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: misplaced constructions of Precambrian evolution.” Journal of the Geological Society, London 149:607–13.
Seilacher, A., Grazhdankin, D. and Legouta, A. (2003). “Ediacaran biota: the daybreak of animal life within the shadow of large protists.” Paleontological Analysis 7:43–54.
Sepkoski, D. (2012). Rereading the Fossil File: The Development of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Self-discipline. Chicago: College of Chicago Press.
Sepkoski, D. (2020). Catastrophic Pondering: Extinction and the Worth of Variety from Darwin to the Anthropocene. Chicago: College of Chicago Press.
Switek, B. “The large, prehistoric squid that ate widespread sense.” WIRED. October 10, 2011. https://www.wired.com/2011/10/the-giant-prehistoric-squid-that-ate-common-sense/.
Whitmire, D.P. and Jackson, A.A. (1984). “Are periodic mass extinctions pushed by a distant photo voltaic companion?” Nature 308:713–5.
