A lack of sex held back life's diversity for millions of years, fossil study finds

Comments

• PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Glad to know I’m in good company 😆

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  • 5715@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    They were not not having sex because had trouble finding a mate, they didn’t have sex because they didn’t need to… :)

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    • TachyonTele@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Well you know WHAT SUSAN I Dont need to have sex either!

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    • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I’m sure that’s what they told themselves.

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    • Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Sex just hadn’t been invented yet

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• dxdydz@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “It took getting freaky for life to get freaky” was right there…

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• AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Well the diversity of the Cambrian explosion makes more sense now. Life on earth discovered sex and just had a few million year long planet-wide orgy lol

  On a serious note, what if that’s actually kind of what happened? Like what if species specific sexual reproduction wasn’t the norm when life was starting out? If animals were basically just accepting whatever DNA was given them—regardless of whether it was from their species or not—sure lots of the offspring wouldn’t be viable, but ample food and lacking predators means you can try again. This kind of breeding would facilitate some incredible genetic diversity which is exactly what we see in the Cambrian diversification.

  We have no idea why so many of them looked the way they do, but what if thats because they inherited lots of traits they didn’t need?

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  • GentriFriedRice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I think that’s a little backwards. Evolution is all about filling niches. The article seems to state Ediacaran diversity was driven by phenotypic (environment-induced) variation caused by ecological stressors. They claim sexual reproduction seems to be a product of environmental factors which drove the diversification.

    It’s thought that the Ediacaran had fewer viable niches than the Cambrian, it’s just really not understood why that is. We don’t really see anything near that explosion in diversity again until the land-colonization of the Devonian which is kind of the same explosion driven by unoccupied niche phenomena

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    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Was that Worms and the churning up of the sea floor, or was that earlier than the Ediacaran?

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  • apotheotic@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    It’s the Cambrian Explosion 🎶

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• Ratio_Tile@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Same

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  • darthsundhaft@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Same

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• Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Yeah, me too.

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• SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  sorry about that

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• danekrae@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “Cool, what is this I grew?! Maybe I can stick it in whatever that thing over there is.”

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  • janus2@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    probably what the first bacterium to spontaneously mutate the gene for an F pilus “thought”

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• FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Image

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  • Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    So weird to see some of these actors aging. I mean, I don’t mind, but it sure is a reminder that the world moves on whether I’m ready for it or not, lol.

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    • Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Reminds me of my own aging despite the fact that I don’t feel particularly different

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• bfg9k@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  …so fish don’t always fuck in it?

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• Infamousblt@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  yea

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• AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Epic handshake meme material

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• homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  That’s what she said!

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