Did anyone publish this concept before we made the comparison in The Emergence of Animals (Columbia U. Press, 1990) on p. ix?
Thanks, Ken, for your reply. The phrase has been cropping up in subsequent publications:
"Koonin (2007) wrote that the metazoan body plan could have emerged in what he calls a biological big bang . . ." --R. A. Jenner (2014)
Jenner, R. A. 2014. BioScience doi: 10.1093/biosci/biu099
Koonin, F. V. 2007. The biological big bang model for major transitions in evolution. Biology Direct 2:21.
Hi, Mark in paper "Could Dahw/Tahw dissolves problems of Plate Tectonics?" I propose new model for global tectonic in this model I claim: Mecca is the first point affected by tectonic. I believe spiral-cell injected several billions years ago inside the earth's centre so first of all create the Earth-Core then Mantel and in the Precambrian builds the Earth-Crust, but due to dahw(rolling) dynamics most ancient layers eroded in Arabia and remain in other Precambrian layers around Geodynamics Pole(Mecca), hence we see GP has golden proportion position in the earth i.e. Pacific Ocean as a biggest ocean tahw(spreading) in one side and continental collection in the other side. It seems earth's material drag along spiral arm(like galaxy) from one side and accumulated in the central bar(Africa/Mecca). geomorphologicaly all significant features in the earth like any creatures show golden proportions with respect to tectonical domains. I have many evidences in this regard which not published till now. you can follows this Idea through spiraltectonic.com(under preparation) in the future.
spiraltectonic.com
Ken, the comparison is quite apt. Ever since Georges Lemaître proposed Big Bang theory, some in the cosmology community have been uneasy with the implications of this profound and abrupt early event. In an exchange with Steve Stanley in 1976 (American Journal of Science 9:1178), you said that the "data indicate that the beginning of the metazoan fossil record is still geologically abrupt but less so than previously thought." While I agree that the origins of metazoa go at least as far back as the beginning of the Ediacaran Period, the abrupt character of the Cambrian Explosion (sudden origination of many phyla) was dramatically enhanced by the discovery of the Chengjiang biota in the mid-1980s. We now see fossil fish in the Early Cambrian. While one might invoke some sort of geochemical "boundary condition" threshold, as you discussed in 1987 (Science 235:415), this would seem to imply rapid change rather than the "evolutionary priority progression" you proposed in 1976 (American Journal of Science 9:1179). The Cambrian Explosion is clearly the Big Bang of evolution.
Ken, thanks for sending the link to your book chapter; everyone please read this informative review!
You say:
"The Late Precambrian-Early Cambrian fossil record can then be interpreted as an explosion of fossils rather than as a sudden eruption of metazoan phylogenesis with highly evolved, diverse, and morphogenetically advanced forms appearing suddenly side by side around the world, few of which have any plausible immediate ancestors as fossils."
Paleontological discoveries since 1981 (particularly Chengjiang), recognition of phylogenetic telescoping, and the Lignor-Sipps Effect [sic] are all pointing to the fact that there was indeed "a sudden eruption of metazoan phylogenesis." The gradualist presumption has hit an archaeocyath reef and is going down.
The proximal cause of the startling pattern remains unexplained. As you noted in 1981, alpha chain collagens predate the metazoan radiation. This is confirmed by recent genomic data (Exposito et al. 2010, Int. J. Mol. Sci 11:407). Chitons existed as far back as 585 m.y. How then could collagen synthesis play any kind of direct role in the Cambrian Explosion (541 m.y.)?
You ask the key question: "Is there another stand-alone explanation?" My group is actively looking at this and we may have something to report soon.
Thanks! We will do our best. Question: do phospholipid bilayers occur in intimate (intracellular or extracelluar) association with type I collagen in any known life forms?
As I understand it in your 1990 book you used the term big bang and the "Cambrian explosion" as a metaphor just to show the importance in science, but you didn´t make a literal connection between the two events. If you mean the latter than you likely find more in the creationistic literature. But I am not familiar with this. In terms of the "Cambrian Explosion" and the abruptness of the appearance of the most metazoan phyla there were several others that recognized this before and used similar terms:
Cloud (1948) as "Cambrian Radiation"; Seilacher (1956) as "explosive Verbreitung der Lebensspuren"; and Brasier (1979) as "Cambrian Explosion"
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