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Subject: Squid/Octopus
Replies: 34 Views: 783

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:17am
This came up briefly in thoughts, thought I would share:

The paper, published March 13 in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, had a simple if unusual thesis: The Cambrian explosion - that sudden burst of biodiversity during which most modern animal groups first appeared in the fossil record some 540 million years ago - was the direct result of an extraterrestrial virus that crashed to Earth in a meteor impact * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:19am
The new paper revives a controversial theory on the origins of life known as the panspermia hypothesis. First proposed by one of the present study's authors and a colleague in the 1970s, this hypothesis suggests that biological life as we know it did not evolve independently on Earth, but was rather ''seeded'' from life-bearing comets that pummeled our planet at various times throughout history.
These comets could have introduced Earth to novel life-forms that evolved on other planets, including viruses, durable microorganisms like unearthly tardigrades or, as the new study suggests, even fertilized animal eggs from other worlds. * +

wickedwitch 25.07.18 - 05:22am
Cushty. * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:23am
For evidence of the panspermia hypothesis, the authors wrote in their new paper, skeptics need only look to the octopus.

Octopuses have complex nervous systems, camera-like eyes and a capacity for camouflage that evolved suddenly and without precedent in their family tree, according to the study authors. The genes for these adaptations, the authors wrote, do not seem to have come from octopus ancestors, but ''it is plausible then to suggest [these traits] seem to be borrowed from a far distant 'future' in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large.''
In one theory laid out in the paper, the authors posit that fertilized octopus eggs crashed into the sea aboard an icy comet at the onset of the Cambrian explosion. Another explanation, they propose, could be that an extraterrestrial virus infected a population of early squid, causing them to evolve rapidly into octopuses as we know them today. * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:26am
Other researchers were not quick to embrace this theory. ''There's no question, early biology is fascinating - but I think this, if anything, is counterproductive,'' Ken Stedman, a virologist and professor of biology at Portland State University, told Live Science. ''Many of the claims in this paper are beyond speculative, and not even really looking at the literature.''
For example, Stedman said, the octopus genome was mapped in 2015. While it indeed contained many surprises, one relevant finding was that octopus nervous system genes split from the squid's only around 135 million years ago - long after the Cambrian explosion. * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:28am
Stedman added that, for a virus, such as the RNA-based ones known as retroviruses, to somehow turn a squid into an octopus, that virus would have to evolve on a world where squid were already plentiful.
Modern retroviruses have evolved to be extremely specific about which hosts they infect, Stedman said. But a retrovirus from outer space wouldn't have evolved to be specific for Earth-based creatures, and ''certainly not specific enough for something like a squid - unless you have massive amounts of squids on some planet incredibly close to us that is spitting off all of these meteors. But I think that kind of assumption is highly unlikely,'' Stedman said.


hmmm.. Icy water moon, anybody? * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:35am
Karin Molling, a virologist at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany, echoed this sentiment in a piece of commentary published alongside the new paper.
While the new study is ''very useful'' for thinking about the influence of the universe on our planet in new ways, the findings ''cannot be taken seriously,'' Molling wrote. ''There is no evidence for it at all.''

But wouldn't it be strange if it were? By investigating terrestrial biology we could also be uncovering clues in regards to exobiology.

Life on Earth could be a mixture of indigenous and more exotic ''alien'' organisms. * +

shadow27 25.07.18 - 05:38am
Another different article:

Just when we thought octopuses couldn't be any weirder, it turns out that they and their cephalopod brethren evolve differently from nearly every other organism on the planet.
In a surprising twist, in April last year scientists discovered that octopuses, along with some squid and cuttlefish species, routinely edit their RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequences to adapt to their environment. * +

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