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by somethingnot 2525 days ago
> The first complication came in 2008, when a group of scientists, in an effort to more precisely map out the evolutionary relationships among animals on the tree of life, identified comb jellies rather than sponges as the earliest animals.

Interestingly, comb jellies have RGB lights. They were dropped in later animals, probably many viewed them as too tacky, but nature truly was on to something:

https://giphy.com/gifs/closeup-comb-lobed-13tbkKy93iYuuA

https://media1.giphy.com/media/7ofEYFGlgZehO/giphy.gif

2 comments

> The first complication came in 2008, when a group of scientists, in an effort to more precisely map out the evolutionary relationships among animals on the tree of life, identified comb jellies rather than sponges as the earliest animals

I really hate this wording, because it gives the wrong idea, namely that Comb Jellies as they exist now are the same as they existed 600-700 million years ago.

It's because they came from an alien world and those traits were better suited to their environment.