State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

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The Noble Worm

Image:  Caron et al., Nature 2013
Image: Caron et al., Nature 2013

Behold! New treasures from the Burgess Shale,

In black and silent strata long held firm.
From features soft, a bold ancestral tale …
Be proud, descendants of the noble worm!

Oh, glorious the hemichordate line,
Spartobranchus tenuis among them,
On slime and mud they heartily do dine;
History has surely under-sung them.

From which deep root, vertebral creatures grew?
A scarcity of fossils long obscured;
Into this question we can dive anew,
With gorgeous, detailed imprints that endured.

A wondrous time, the Cambrian Explosion …
Move over, Eve; my roots are in the ocean!

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Further reading:

First posted on 3/29/13 at Katherine Allen’s website.

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