De-evolution in the ocean

Some of the most advanced forms of ocean life are struggling to survive while the most primitive are thriving and spreading. Fish, corals and marine mammals are dying while algae, bacteria and jellyfish are growing unchecked. Where this pattern is most pronounced, scientists evoke a scenario of evolution running in reverse, returning to the primeval seas of hundreds of millions of years ago.

Jeremy B.C. Jackson, a marine ecologist and paleontologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, says we are witnessing "the rise of slime ... we're pushing the oceans back to the dawn of evolution ... a half-billion years ago when the oceans were ruled by jellyfish and bacteria."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-me-ocean30jul30,0,6670018,full.story

evolution isn't a linear process running from beginning to end, so the idea of evolution running 'backwards' is totally nonsensical..

Yeah but it made a cool title ... you get the point / agree anyhow O learned one?

Less complex --> more complex??

All that matters is fitness Vadz. Complexity is incidental to fitness.

it doesn't matter if organism A has a million more parts than organism B (i.e is more complex) if organism A dies out. In any meaningful sense organism B is 'better' evolved than organism A

If organism A is better adapted to its environment then Organism B, then organism A shall dominate, regardless of its biological complexity. At least we'll be done with those fuckers at Greenpeace and their whale spiel.

That's freaky you mention this. Was watching a program on Discovery last night and they were talking about Box jellyfish and how they were getting bigger as the seas warmed (and waters warm enough for them spread further and further south in Australia).

I didn't know they are one of the four most venomous animals on earth (according to the guy on the show at least).

R

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_jellyfish

sells seaside property
buys mountain property