Paul Nelson
Posts: 43
Joined: July 2007
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Hi Alb (David),
I've seen personally Paul Chien's SEMs of fossil embryos from Chengjiang, where for several years he did fieldwork under the supervision of paleontologist J.Y. Chen. The degree of preservation of these embryos is astonishing (for instance, cellular structures and yolk granules are unmistakable). Chien is qualified to express an opinion in this area.
But I agree with you that additional documentation is needed for the general point on p. 31; here's a recent paper:
| Quote | | We conclude that a careful interpretation of all available evidence, particularly paleontological data, presents strong evidence that most major animal lineages originated in a relatively short period of time and therefore that the Cambrian radiation represents a real and significant event in the history of life, and not some artifact of taphonomy or of a poor fossil record. |
Paulyn Cartwright and Allen Collins, "Fossils and phylogenies: integrating multiple lines of evidence to investigate the origin of early major metazoan lineages," Integrative and Comparative Biology 47 (2007):744-751; p. 749, emphasis added.
We'll provide additional support from the literature for Chien's position.
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