Discovery Of Giant Roaming Deep Sea Protist Provides New Perspective On Animal Evolution

Tracks of the Bahamian Gromia sphaerica(A) Gently sloping seafloor with numerous G. sphaerica visible. White arrowheads indicate notably curved tracks; black arrowheads indicate adjacent tracks running in opposite directions.(B) Alignment of the tracks on a steeper slope.(C–F) Details of the tracks, demonstrating the characteristic bilobed profile with the central ridge that is especially prominent near the organism. In panel (E), note that the track proceeds through a dip in the terrain, suggesting active locomotion. In panel (F), a group of three large cup corals growing on a half-buried sea urchin test indicate a remarkable sediment stability that may facilitate track persistence. Photos courtesy of sciencedirect.com.

New evidence about protists has led to the disproval of our current understanding of the evolution of the kingdom Animalia. A Biologist, Mikhail Matz, from the University of Texas at Austin was researching the ocean floor of the Bahamas when he came upon an amazing discovery. He found grooves on the deep floors of the ocean that came from protists, but showed a bi lateral pattern that is considered to be a trait of animals.

This is so incredible because it is the first time bi-lateral animal-like traces are appearing in single celled organism’s movements. The connection comes from the fact that the Precambrian era multi-cellular animals have very comparable trails left behind due to movement. “Bilateria appeared in the fossil record in the early Cambrian about 542 million years ago” (Science Daily). Mats says, “if our giant protists were alive 600 million years ago and the track was fossilized, a paleontologist unearthing it today would attribute it to a kind of large, multi-cellular, bilaterally symmetrical animal…We now have to rethink the fossil record” (Mats).  It is an amazing thing to be able to add knowledge to the pool of evolutionary theory.

External Appearance of the Bahamian G. sphaerica(A) Collected specimen demonstrating transparent membranous test, multiple evenly scattered apertures, and dark-green sediment contained in the protoplasm under the test's surface.(B) Freshly collected specimen with collapsed pseudopodia still visible (white projections).(C) Typical grape-shaped specimen in situ, fully covered with sediment. The track of this one is toward the top right corner of the picture.

Since fossils are a customary means of examining organisms, it is hard to be one hundred percent positive about this evidence because it is hard to extract a fossil from the ocean floor due to water movements. Fortunately for this protest, it’s location, with little current, made it possible to maintain the tracks. With such evidence it is now evident that the fossil record must be re examined to fit these protists in their appropriate location.

Blog Post Author: Jonathan Zirna Section 124-26

Works Cited

University of Texas at Austin (2008, November 21). Discovery Of Giant Roaming Deep Sea                     Protist Provides New Perspective On Animal Evolution. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March   3, 2013, from http:wwwsciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120130531.htm