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A new study conducted by the University of Cambridge discovered that the first forms of life on Earth have become larger as a means of species distribution. Experts have found that the most successful complex organisms that lived more than half a billion years ago were not growing as a means of competition, but were growing so as to be able to expand their colonies to across the ocean.
During the Ediacaran period, which ended about 541 million years ago, organisms appeared for the first time larger than microscopic size. Some of these complex organisms, such as telomorphs, were two meters tall.
The telomorphs may have been among the first animals to exist, but they had neither organs nor mouths, nor any method of mobility. This means that they most likely depended on the absorption of nutrients in the water around them.
Today, plants are gaining momentum because of intense competition for resources such as light, and larger trees or plants have an obvious advantage.
"We wanted to know if there were similar factors for the organisms during the Ediacaran period," said lead author of the study, Dr. Emily Mitchell. "Has life on Earth increased because of competition?"
The investigation focused on the fossils of Mistaken Point, in southeastern Newfoundland, one of the world's richest Ediacaran fossil sites.
Early research assumed that there was greater competition for nutrients at different depths of water. The present study demonstrated, however, that the Ediacaran Oceans were very well supplied with food.
"At the time, the oceans were very rich in nutrients, so that there was not much competition for resources, and predators did not exist yet," said Dr. Mitchell. "So, there must have been another reason why life forms became so great during this period."
The researchers used spatial analysis techniques to analyze entire populations of Ediacarean organisms. They found that there was no correlation between size and competition for food.
"If they were competing for food, then we would expect to find that organisms with stems were very hierarchical," explained study co-author Dr. Charlotte Kenchington. "But we found the opposite: the stemless organisms were actually more storied than those with stems, so the stems probably served another function."
Researchers believe that stems have grown longer to allow greater dispersal of offspring, which telomorphs produce by expelling small propagules. Larger individuals were surrounded by larger groups of offspring, indicating that the advantage of pruning was the development of larger colonies.
"While larger organisms would have been in faster waters, the lack of prioritization within these communities shows that their height does not give them distinct benefits in terms of nutrient uptake," he said. said Dr. Mitchell. "Instead, reproduction seems to have been the main reason why life on Earth grew when it did."
The study is published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
Image credit: Emily Mitchell
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