{"id":1187,"date":"2021-12-21T13:45:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T13:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2022-04-05T20:50:35","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T20:50:35","slug":"vanderbilt-researchers-combine-paleontology-and-fluid-physics-to-uncover-ediacaran-nurseries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/vanderbilt-researchers-combine-paleontology-and-fluid-physics-to-uncover-ediacaran-nurseries\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanderbilt Researchers Combine Paleontology and Fluid Physics to Uncover Ediacaran Nurseries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knowing how life worked on Earth 550 million years ago can give perspective on how life could evolve on other planets. Geobiologist and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences\u00a0<\/span>Simon Darroch<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and postdoctoral researcher\u00a0<\/span>Brandt Gibson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are working to figure that out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the broadest scale, understanding how, when, and why complex life evolved on this planet gives us a sense for how likely it is that we\u2019ll find complex life elsewhere in the solar system, and what it may look like,\u201d Darroch said. \u201cI honestly can\u2019t think of anything cooler to be working on.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Simon Darroch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Their research features strange, vase-like organisms (in the genus\u00a0<\/span>Ernietta<\/span><\/i>) that lived in the Ediacaran era\u2014approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago. These organisms lived in marine environments, where fluid dynamics drive the evolution of the organisms that inhabit them.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Knowing how life worked on Earth 550 million years ago can give perspective on how life could evolve on other planets. Geobiologist and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences\u00a0Simon Darroch\u00a0and postdoctoral researcher\u00a0Brandt Gibson\u00a0are working to figure that out.\u00a0 \u201cAt the broadest scale, understanding how, when, and why complex life evolved on this planet gives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2421,"featured_media":1190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n