How We Identified One of Earth’s Earliest Animals
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2020
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Scientists had no idea what type of organisms the life forms of the Ediacaran were-lichen, colonies of bacteria, fungi or something else. It turns out, the key to solving the puzzle of Precambrian life was a tiny bit of fossilized fat.
Thanks to Ilya Bobrovskiy for allowing us to use photos from his fieldwork in this video.
science.sciencemag.org/conten...
www.nature.com/articles/s4146...
And thanks to Erik Sperling for allowing us to show a photo of evidence of Dickinsonia feeding traces: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a...
A lot of the Ediacaran reconstructions in this video were illustrated by Franz Anthony. Check out more Franz’s brilliant work here: franzanth.com/
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Anthony Callaghan, Anton Bryl, Jeff Graham, Shelley Floryd, Laura Sanborn, Henrik Peteri, Zachary Spencer, Chandler Bass, Richard Ohnemus, Joao Ascensao, Andrey, Ben Thorson, Marcus Lejon, Ilya Murashov, Jerrit Erickson, Merri Snaidman, David Sewall, Olesya Mikulskaya, Gabriel Cortez, Jack Arbuckle, Robert Noah, Philip Slingerland, Todd Dittman, James Bording, Eric Vonk, Robert Arévalo, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Jon Monteiro, Missy Elliott Smith, Jonathan Wright, Gregory Donovan, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, PS, Brad, Maria Humphrey, Larry Wilson, Hubert Rady, John Vanek, Tsee Lee, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Matt Parker, Tyson Cleary, Case Hill, Stefan Weber, Betsy Radley
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References: docs.google.com/document/d/19... - Věda a technologie
Man, I miss when Discovery and National Geographic was more about this type of documentary and les about reality shows. Thank you CZcams and thank you PBS Eons. Greetings from Brazil.
Dude I know it used to be my favorite channel and now it's the most disappointing channel. Discovery in Nat Geo that is
I haven't watched NatGeo in a cable TV before, but it is disappointing to hear that quality of their TV shows is actually bad. I like their articles though.
Yeah, Discovery and Nat Geo have gone the way of the History Channel *shudder*
Or when The Learning Channel (TLC) wasn't a cesspool...
no reason to keep paying the cable bill at that point
Can we just appreciate the amount of science this discovery required? The understanding of what a cell is, taxonomy and classification, understanding of what a molecule is, figuring out that animals have certain molecules in certain abundances, inventing a helicopter and the other equipment needed to pull this fossil out of the ground, microscopes and other equipment to pulverize the fossil for use under the microscope, utilizing statistics to get the sense of the abundance of those random molecules, all kinds of dating measurements to say when in history a certain rock is from and the scientific method itself to be able to confidently say that this random squiggle in a rock was actually a prehistoric animal. Amazing. I flippin' love science.
dizadaza love your comment! it is absolutely staggering what can become understood with the patient, intelligent, global community of scientific endeavor. I am stunned at how smart and innovative this is on the part of a single PhD student _plus_ the staggering amount of science by so many others that had to precede it. It makes me seethe with so much anger at the people of my country, America, that take all this sooo much for granted and think nothing of throwing science out the window when it impinges on their personal emotional, cognitive, and material comfort (e.g., climate change, evolution in schools). It’s so self-destructive. Back to the positive, this is a beautiful story ... thank you!
@@ScottStratton Yup...keep preachin' brother...
@@ScottStratton
You can speak for me just about anytime you want. Awesome comment.
Couldn't agree more. Much more deserving of respect and appreciation than just "god did it" lol
YES! I counted and it required at least 7 sciences! Amazing
My life goal is to confuse scientists this much when my body is found millions of years in the future.
Those are the best goals I've every heard.
TinyTeacup Lol be sure to eat oreos with ketchup as a last meal, that’s sure to baffle them.
Ride a unicycle with crutches while attempting to devour a hot dog.
They’ll only find a full sized McDonald’s and nothing more
swallow a text encased in non-digestible casing
Please, let's not cut Kallie in half! We need her both sides together for this channel.
Maybe she'll regenerate like a flatworm, and then there will be two of her
I freakin' love Kallie. All the Eons hosts are the best PBS hosts
Too hot to chop
Kallie Moore! Don't cut yourself in half!
@@a_e_hilton Matt O'Dowd isn't on Eons though.
Bobrovskiy: so I’m going to travel to the area with fossils
advisor: okay
Bobrovskiy: and then I’m going to excavate the rare, priceless fossils
advisor: sounds good
Bobrovskiy: and then I’m going to smash them
advisor:
Bobrovskiy:
advisor: *excuse me*
I'm now picturing other scientists having the same conversation with their graduate advisor.
Their field of study REALLY has implications for what they'd be smashing, and the consequences of that smashing.
@@mwolkove Yeah because there is a limited number of those fossils in the entire universe
@@therealveridicalyt497 universe? You mean world?
with SCIENCE
@@ethanbecerra8708the world is in the universe so he's not wrong.
I'll always appreciate Ediacaran videos. It's a fascinating period, that doesn't get the coverage it deserves
I agree and that is also why the Cambrian area is so widely misinterpreted with that most ridiculous "Cambrian explosion" nonsense . If you ignore or know virtually nothing about the period before the Cambrian, then of course it just looks like as if animal diversification exploded in that one 20 million year period.
This is exactly why I want to specialise in the Ediacaran period when I become an evolutionary biologist 👌
Such a fascinating period!
*An Ernietta hand puppet, with ping pong ball eyes, pops up*
"You've got THAT right! Hee hee!"
can't wait for the ediacaran-centric channel on youtube
Truly, it is fascinating.
"Who's your celebrity crush?"
"Ilya Bobrovskiy."
"Who???"
"This scientist who rappelled down sheer cliffsides in order to harvest rare fossils. Then he came up with an entirely new testing method to solve mysteries scientists have been arguing about for generations. And he looks... like this" *shows photo*
"Oh my god, I totally get it."
I would swipe right 😂
Kallie is hot like that, pretty too ;)
To be fair, he didn't come up with the biomarker concept. He just had the idea to use it on these fossils.
I --
😂😂😂
Can't stop hearing "Bob Rosski".
His name actually comes from the slavic word for beaver.
You, Sir, may have my upvote.
@@tbagginsesq8169 And you too!
Came to say that we had many happy accidentskis
.... Curse you...i read this before I heard it and now it's all I hear as well
Bobrosky... Bob Ross. You can’t fool me, comrade. Now paint me like one of your happy kimberella.
Nope, not Bobrosky, - BobroVskiy :)
It's more about beaver, than Bobs and bros.
🤣
Kristina Zlaya Hey I was closer than I expected 🤣
@@oqsy Yep, but Bobrovskiy really comes from a slavic word to a beaver :)
I would love to see more videos on Pre-Cambrian life! Most of Earth's history is there.
Scrap humon history let's leArn about a blob!!
Agreed! amorphous, hard to classify blobs are just crazy interesting.
Me too!!
@@leejuicy you look like a male and a female at the same time.
@@etoatoummhmm6391 what does that have to do with anything
0:26 Please do a video on the pre-Cambrian killer garlic
The Pre-Cambrian killer garlic really do be Vibin' tho'.
The....... the WHAT?!?!?!?
Yes! Explanations please!
I was puzzling over that too
Most feared by pre-Cambrian vampires.
@@bluetangsrock938 i want Ediacaran garlic, Ediacaran hand puppet, Ediacaran not-a-snail, Ediacaran not-a-sea-fern, and Ediacaran jelly boi.
This channel is the love of my life
I live for this content
I live for this
Pretty much for me... my 5 year old self would BLAST because of this channel.
Finding this channel by chance two years ago made me change fields from microbiology to paleontology, transfer to a new school, and get a position doing undergraduate research in Devonian marine life. Hopefully, after this coming school year, I'll be pursuing a master's degree and researching Paleozoic or Mesozoic reptiles and amphibians. Forever thankful to PBS Eons for putting me on the right path in life and rekindling my love for paleontology 🧡
@@lizardqueen99 way to go king 👑 👏👏👏
YOURE A LOOSE CANNON BROBROVSKI, YOURE OFF THE CASE
wardop123 bobbbbvrroooooovvskiii
"Goddamnit, Chief, you can't do that! I know I'm on to something!"
schaffrillas productions gang
YOU'RE OFF THE SQUAD!
No chief, your off YOUR case.
What does that even mean Brobrovski?
IT MEANS HE GETS RESULTS YOU STUPID CHIEF!
Sit down dad.
“we discovered a dickinsonia”
“what’s that?”
“when he isn’t in Margaret.”
Who the heck came up with that name??
@@silverschmid4591 science people
@@silverschmid4591 It is named after Ben Dickinson according to Wikipedia
@@silverschmid4591 Dickinson. He's not that original.
@@lucalone Ben Dickindaughter
Other people as PhD: solve the puzzle of decades, reshape paleobiology.
Me as PhD: struggle with fxxking literature review.
Thanks very much for the flash back to my Masters....
Let me assure you it is not just you and one of my friends got so frustrated that she was basically doing book material for her professor, because she had to use one of pregiven titles that she started hating content she previously liked. I dont have such a problem, because I just made my own field of research for PhD (it was fun, it still is, but profesor wont work again with me this year, he said he is too old, I needed to find a new one, which is third one, because first one dropped me from fear that she was not an expert on the field ... that is entirely new, go figure xD ... fun times, fun times), but many people I hear about have such problems.
This is my life as a Master’s student right now...
Stop predicting my future
@@dandanthedandan7558 it's not prediction, it's literally your destiny
I am a simple organism. I see a new PBS Eons video, I click :)
What kingdom
What Domain?
*Or are you one of those extraterrestrial folks?*
@@pigadmiral6642 fungi why do you ask
@@pigadmiral6642 wait i mean animalai
@@litheralySOcool fungus among us
now I'm extremely curious about the ediacaran sea garlic from 1:49
🧄
Garlic was an apex predator back in the day, their smell was highly toxic, allowing them to kill their prey without effort. Eventually all organisms became immune to the smell, which is why vampires are repelled by garlic. The parasite that gives vampires their power isn't of earthly origin.
The only predator of this creature is the Wario.
Your Sexualized Grandparents
No Garlic allows you to move zombies to different lanes in PvZ
I thought the same thing haha
I love these videos so much! I really wanted to become a paleontologist as a kid and even though I went in a different route I love indulging my inner child with these fascinating videos! Ty for making them and plz keep it up!
Same for me.
I also wanted to be a paleontologist...
Thank you, Kallie, for your consistent use of "conjecture" or "hypothesis" -- people way overuse "THEORY"
*"BUT HEY, THAT'S JUST A THEORY!'*
@@Tyranid_HiveMind *“A EDIACARAN THEORY”*
@@therealveridicalyt497 *THANKS FOR WATCHING!!*
@@Tyranid_HiveMind *"AND CUT!"*
@@therealveridicalyt497 Viewer:"Aaaaaand unsubscribe" *Click*
This woman is such a joy to listen to. Such vibrant energy and cheerfulness and not to mention the wonders she is talking about. All of this just makes me feel so happy to be alive. Humans can do such beautiful things working together. Thank you!!!
there needs to be more vids about the ediacaran period. please make more !
YESSS!!!!! there does!
It blows my mind that we can find traces of animal life that are so old they predate flatworms.
Last time I was this early, the Ediacaran Era was still new.
Out of all of these "jokes", this is really clever.
Hmmm shouldnt our era be considered old and the ones at the beginning new? We are actually older than the dinosaurs. :)
Ediacrian Period*, late NeoProterozoic Era
@@MrPlaylist1991 you seem great at parties
Fossils still amaze me to this day. The fact that I can look at a patch of dirt and say right there in that spot one of the first groups of animals died right there. In that spot. 550 million years ago.
That kind of precision in science and history so long ago just seems insane and should not be taken for granted.
Makes me wonder wherever you're standing,sitting or laying at one point could've been in your place long before human civilization even began.
Let's hope that this strategy will be applied on the other Ediacaran fauna to help us get a better picture of this strange time period.
Please, do a video on the carcharodontosaurs next.
Others: Why did you crush the priceless fossil?!
Bobrovski: A small price to pay for salvation
Ilya _'The Crusher'_ Bobrovski
9:09 - bottom right hand corner
Me: haha underwater garlic
Lmao
Thought the same!
I want Ediacaran garlic, Ediacaran hand puppet, Ediacaran not-a-snail, Ediacaran not-a-sea-fern, and Ediacaran jelly boi.
I've read somewhere the reason why some of these very early lifeforms got preserved so well was because there was nothing or almost nothing that could consume or digest their dead bodies. Life was still very rare...
That is an interesting thought.
Steve, I don't know who you're but I will look for you, I will find you...and I will thank you!
We need an episode for Steve
I LOVE videos on these extremely old creatures from periods like the ediacaran and cambrian. They're the periods I'm most interested in.
YOU'RE OFF THE CASE, BOBROVSKIY! YOU'RE TOO CLOSE TO THIS ONE! TURN IN YOUR BADGE AND GUN!
mcslackens Sergei bobbrovski
Bobrovskiy: But I'm a palaeontologist not a cop I don't have a -
Chief: I DON'T CARE BOBROVSKIY!
You want the truth? U can't handle the truth!!
Title: How "we" discovered...
Poor Homeless Graduate Student: "We who? Me?"
Guess your best, everything is a hypothesis!
"I'm not a Metaphyta, I'm a free Metazoa" - Bruce Dickinsonia
Funy
Hold up! Wait a minute! So this guy came up with some ground breaking paleontological method, teaches at Caltech, has golden wavy hair and those hard-thinking-concentration-face-dew-drop eyes that make me weak in the knees? What am I supposed to do with that? He’s all smart and cute and paleontological! I can’t just go on with my life knowing he’s out there being so damn fine! GAH!!!! -Beth (not Graham)
I had the pleasure to meet the mentioned gentleman and I can attest all the things are absolutely true!
Shubham Agrawal lucky!
God you people are creepy
Not Graham? Sure, Graham
Last I was this early the Cambrian just exploded
thank you Sans Peter Griffin
I've enjoyed many previous videos on PBS Eons. But this video has motivated me to become a Patreon supporter. Thank you PBS Eons for the work that you do.
Ediacaran biota getting some more attention! My favourite!
I just want to say thank you for uploading consistently interesting content that always makes me happy to receive a notification of a new video!
This channel is so amazing, interesting and intelligent. I never cease to learn something new each episode. And this is one of the best episodes yet!
I find tiny fossils at my grandparents creek all the time! It’s one of my favorite things to do at their house. I have a whole table covered in fossils and antique broken glass on their front porch haha.
How old are the fossils?
@@shawns0762 I have no idea, and I don't know how to tell either. most of them are little circles or back bones
@@johnvance882 If there's a natural history museum near you, you might ask someone there for help.
"Which appear in almost all animals as lipids"
Are... are you calling me fat?
Hey there, Eons team! I first stumbled upon your episode on Deinocheirus a few months ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I feel like Precambrian life is underrated and not presented with the aplomb and interest as some of the better-known creatures from later in Earth's history, so this was a really fun watch for me. What are the chances we could get an episode on the evolutionary development of hearing?
Thanks for all your work!
These videos are such high quality. Along with PBS Space Time Ive been watching them non-stop since I discovered them a couple of months ago.
Thankyou!
I love all earliest creatures from prehistoric times, I bet we may find more answers of history in the future!
Most creatures that have ever been are from prehistoric times
I love it when you publish videos with this kind of content! I'd love to see you talk about the Cambrian Substrate Revolution too!
Now imagine doing paleontology on other planets... It would likely look a lot like this.
I think may be future astronaut find fossil from Earth fossil on Moon. Meteor crash can send Earth rock to Moon and other planets.
Astro-paleontologist. That's got to be the coolest job title.
It would most certainly not look like anything like this.
This video showed the amazing advances of science and how we keep finding new ways of extracting valuable data from the world around us.
Wow, this kind of molecular analysis is superb: that's the only way to go! Iliya and his friends are legends!
Kudos to you guys for keeping the videos coming during this difficult time. Would be interesting to see how you're doing it tbh
I've always been fascinated by pre-Cambrian and early Cambrian life. It's so weird to see all these creatures that blur the lines between kingdoms.
Maybe these kingdoms were called families or orders back then.
Thank you PBS EONS for this amazing informative!
And also kudos to Mr. Bobrovskiy for an excellent and definitely remarkable find and research.
My brain has been well-fed.
Enormously interesting! I love the Ediacaran period for its mysterious and weird creatures. Wonderful video! More of this, please!
This episode dealt with exactly those questions which I had for a long time. Thanks
The Ediacaran is a really fascinating period! Thanks for the video. I’m going to go down a research rabbit hole now lol
This is simply my favourite channel on CZcams now!
Yes to more pioneering molecular paleontology methods! Love the channel and love all the fascinating info 🙌
it still boggles my mind that life was nothing more than a huge proto soup for over 3 Billion years. with all the fantastic beasts in the multicellular era, the first 3 Billion years almost feels like an immense waste of time
Whos exactly is wasting his time?
The soup takes time to boil.
Conditions on Earth were not as stable as recent times.
It was actually the period of most dramatic progress. Think about the complexities of evolving a replicating & self-sustaining cell. Most of the essential cellular mechanics were developed in this time & are largely conserved. Once you have functional cells, it’s variation on a theme. It’s a mistake to say it’s faster now. Is the evolution of proteins to develop the critical library of enzymes faster than evolving from amphibians to reptiles? There was an incredible amount of novel chemistry happening in that period & it took a while to work it out.
The last time I was this early, Dickinsonia was the fastest thing in the ocean!
Thank you for posting. This is a brilliant presentation! She has to be one of the best I've seen. Very nice ground-breaking work by Bobovskiy. The Ediacaran is so interesting but so inaccessible. All major phyla are represented in the Cambrian so must have their ancestors in this period.
thank you for these videos, thank you for what you doing!
Yeah, loving the pre-Triassic videos, but especially pre-Cambrian stuff. Gimme that basal phylogeny!
Thank you for the great scientific content you create with your team. It is so nice to be able to learn from you for free because you do that so well. This is a brain changing experience. You create the new evolution.
Fascinating, as always. I get so excited when I see a new video from you guys, lol.
Agreed with other posters here. Great channel with great topics. I enjoy watching all three presenters.
This channel calms my mind srly I love this content
Nice work! I’d love to see a vid on the taxonomic mess that is Megaraptora.
I love this channel. Covers many interesting subjects of our natural history.
Please keep up the good work. This is excellent content-informative, entertaining, accessible but not dumbed-down. It's everything that makes people fall in love with the science of things presented by people who have a clear love for the science of things.
"If you cut a human in half right down the middle..." dont do this btw
Oh, now you tell me!
what’s with doing that?
We need to talk about your pfp.
I already did
Eons! Please make a video about "where ____ (dinosaur) is now" showing us how T Rex's or other dinosaurs evolved into the animals we know and love today!
T rex's didn't evolve into birds. It's hard to say what the direct ancestor of modern birds was, but doubtless it was a much smaller dinosaur.
they already have really, only one group of dinosaurs survived and they became birds. the rest of the surviving reptiles today arent closely related to dinosaurs and predate/lived alongside them.
Truly outstanding episode! Quite fascinating.
TRULY my favorite channel!
Kimberella has my vote as the prehistoric organism with the prettiest name.
Sounds like one of the princesses from She Ra! lol!
2:36
PBS host: *Dickinsonia*
Me: *Big Thick Giant Lips*
Truly remarkable research. Good job, Bobrovskiy!
Any day this channel uploads a new video is a happy day!
I like watching these videos, it makes me less scared of death
"Likely THE first animal that moved on its own"
Well, ain't that a pretty bold statement.
@@londonjackson8986 I couldn't find any info on that, the earliest fossils of them having been found in the mid cambrian. Any chance for a link or two?
Always get excited for every new episode. You guys are great!!!! Dont forget the 2 evolutionary history episodes the pinnipeds and tyrannosaurids
this is the stuff i joined you guys on patreon for! keep e'm coming.
bruh 39 seconds ago, i feel like a true fan
I’m an air conditioner
I was think all those interesting blobs went extinct when predators develop eyes and saw nice food to eat. Can you do a video on Tonian multicellular life? I like the old school topics.
Thank you so much for doing a video on my favourite geological time period! I remember being so happy when it was ratified as an official time period. Science needs to give the Ediacaran a lot more attention!
Remember kids: it's considered unpolite to go around cutting people in half.
Eons!! You make my coworkers mad, because I tell them random facts I learn here!😂😂 thank you
Honestly, the most amazing and interesting thing to me. is that the host of PBS has half of a sleeve of tats on her arm, and you never would have seen that 10,15, 20 years ago on a channel like PBS Talk about our own evolution" and growth.
I love it! It shows: maturity, understanding, diveraity, progressiveness, and most importantly humanity.
To me, it's the smallest choices we make on a day to day basis, and that have the greatest impact on our future.
Keep up the great work PBS
Gosh I love when you cover pre-Cambrian stuff
There's a lot of videos on ocean life, how it evolved and how it moved onto land, but I'm curious how we got our freshwater inhabitants too and how they've evolved. I was a little sad to see you guys didn't have a lot of videos on freshwater fish and I'd love to see more about them. Particularly the Osteoglossiformes like the Arowana!
Yes, the early life in freshwater would be a very interesting thing! I guess that the ancestors of the early insects were freshwater animals too.
And I would love to watch some Videos of palaeobotanic themes.
The early Land plants were very fascinating creatures, or later in the Devonian the first gymnosperm seed plants.
An maybe a third Video about the first angiosperms, or flower plants? It is still not really clear where the first angiosperms came from, or does anybody here know more about this theme?
I had no idea we didn't know what that fossil was. I didn't realize that was even a mystery. This blew my mind. Amazing.
I was waiting this video for so long
I absolutely love this channel!
"He crushed up precious fossils"
He What!
Dickinsonia
13 year old: *giggles*
Thank you for the information.
You're great!
A brilliant use of deductive reasoning and forensic analysis of the evidence - I love truly Dr. Holms-ian scientists Ilya Bobrovskiy.
Hehe i have to giggle in my head every time i here dickinsonia
Hi eons, I like this channel a lot and i want to know about dilophosaurus , is this creature a raptor species ?
Neat video! Thanks for uploading!
Always weird to see sources from 2020 used in these video's, feels good to know that the information is up to date!
Do any experts think that some of the Ediacaran species might have evolved into ones we see from the Cambrian? Spriggina (9:01) seems like a possible trilobite ancestor, for example.
likely, also i wonder if the SciShow guy figured out Herpidigastur, the lifeform he couldn't describe using his words
Paleontology student here
If you ask just if any experts think that, yeah, they do. There isnt a big consensus on whether the Ediacaran fauna was an indipendent "experiment" of life forms and bauplans (fancy zoological way of saying body plan, aka Phylum) that went nowhere and went extinct before the Cambrian "Explosion" (Whether it was an actual sudden diversity explosion or not is the base of many debates) or if the Ediacaran fauna is the predecessor to the Burgess type fauna (Cambrian fauna). Truth is that before the early/middle cambrian, no organism had any hard (mineralized) parts, so they hardly get fossilised. Because of this, we dont actually know if the Ediacaran fauna went through a major extinction event or simply we can't find fossil impressions BUT life was still thriving. It's a complicated matter.
As for Spriggina, yeah, some say that its part of the trilobite evolutionary tree, but many paleontologist point fingers at Parvancorina, another trilobite-like animal from the Ediacaran, because it shares a lot of morphological similarities to Skania, a genus of early Cambrian trilobites.
Hope this helps, cheers
Probably. There are some species of preCambrian biota that resemble younger taxa.
@@ramarromarrone awesome, thanks!