Examples of bilaterians each with genes first evolved in the pre-Cambrian.
Bilaterians are a group of animals characterized by bilateral symmetry, which means they have a left and right side that are mirror images of each other. This symmetry allows for a clear front and back end, as well as distinct top and bottom surfaces. Bilaterians are among the most diverse and successful animal groups on Earth.Imagine, you're a creationist fool whose cult leaders have made to feel smugly self-important because a supernatural magic man created your ancestors specially with uniquely humans abilities that set you apart from the other animals, just a few thousand years ago, like the ability to learn, remember and have complex social interactions.
The emergence of bilaterians marked a significant milestone in the evolution of life. They evolved during the Cambrian explosion, a period around 541 million years ago when there was a rapid diversification of complex animal life in the fossil record.
Bilaterians gave rise to a wide array of animal lineages, many of which are still present today. Some of the major groups that evolved from bilaterians include:Bilaterians were crucial in shaping the animal kingdom and played a pivotal role in the complex ecological relationships that emerged throughout Earth's history. They eventually diversified into the incredible variety of animal species that we see today.
- Deuterostomes: One of the major branches of bilaterians, deuterostomes include several important animal groups, such as vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) and echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers).
- Protostomes: Another major branch of bilaterians, protostomes include diverse groups such as arthropods (insects, spiders, crustaceans), mollusks (snails, clams, squids), annelids (earthworms, leeches), and many others.
ChatGPT3 "What were bilaterians and what did they evolve into?" [Response to user question]
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com
Then along comes a bunch of those spoil-sport scientists who shows that the genes for those things evolved in some very primitive ancestors, the bilaterians, 650 million years ago and so are shared with all the multitude of descendants of those primitive organisms.
How do you handle this new information while still feeling the smugly self-important special creation of the creator of the universe?
You can't allow yourself to think you could be wrong, because that would spoil the whole delusion, so you ignore the science, abuse the scientists, or simply declare it all wrong, and carry on believing the myth of your special importance.
But the problem is the research findings are still there and won't go away just because you've ignored them or declared them wrong, so, whatever you do, avoid reading what follows because it is from a press release from the university of Leicester, UK, where the leaders of the research team were from, and the open access paper in Nature Communications where they published their findings:
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviours originated around 650 million years ago.
The findings led by Dr Roberto Feuda, from the Neurogenetic group in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology and other colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), have now been published in Nature Communications.
Dr Feuda said:
We’ve known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the nervous system, playing a role in complex behaviour and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding.
However, less certain was the origin of the genes required for the production, detection, and degradation of these monoamines. Using the computational methods, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of these genes and show that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation, and reception originated in the bilaterian stem group.
This finding has profound implications on the evolutionary origin of complex behaviours such as those modulated by monoamines we observe in humans and other animals.
This discovery will open new important research avenues that will clarify the origin of complex behaviours and if the same neurons modulate reward, addiction, aggression, feeding, and sleep.
The authors suggest that this new way to modulate neuronal circuits might have played a role in the Cambrian Explosion – known as the Big Bang - which gave rise to the largest diversification of life for most major animal groups alive today by providing flexibility of the neural circuits to facilitate the interaction with the environment.
In the abstract to their open access paper in Nature Communications, the team say:
AbstractSo, far from being unique characteristic of 'specially created' humans, the genes for learning, memory and complex behaviour like aggression and prosocial behaviour have the origins in the pre-Cambrian and may even be responsible, in part, for the rapid diversification seen in the Cambrian when multicellular organisms became mobile, giving rise to selection pressure for sensory systems.
Monoamines like serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline/noradrenaline (epinephrine/norepinephrine) act as neuromodulators in the nervous system. They play a role in complex behaviours, cognitive functions such as learning and memory formation, as well as fundamental homeostatic processes such as sleep and feeding. However, the evolutionary origin of the genes required for monoaminergic modulation is uncertain. Using a phylogenomic approach, in this study, we show that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation, and reception originated in the bilaterian stem group. This suggests that the monoaminergic system is a bilaterian novelty and that its evolution may have contributed to the Cambrian diversification.
Goulty, M., Botton-Amiot, G., Rosato, E. et al.
The monoaminergic system is a bilaterian innovation.
Nat Commun 14, 3284 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39030-2
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
And all this took place almost 650 million years before Earth was created, according to creationist superstition.
Just one more annoying little fact for creationists to dismiss as not meeting their requirements.
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