[gausswho]

Sounds like nature's take on building a jalopy out of whatever it can scrounge. What it makes me wonder is perhaps this cobbling together creates a resilience that the other clocking architecture is vulnerable to. Could these outliers serve as a kind of important reservoir? Against calamities Earth periodically goes through that blot out the sun for longer than an individual life cycle? Or perhaps even more resilient than that - buffering against variations in planet/moon rotation speed or distances.

Jellyfish == System Recovery Mode.

[Tagbert]

That kind of thing is more standard procedure for evolution than an exception. Since evolution doesn't plan but just makes use of what it has with slide variations, changes play out along paths that are easier rather than optimal. That's how you get a thumb on the panda evolved from a projection on the wrist.