Before life on Earth exploded in diversity some 540 million years ago, the first primitive animal skeletons were already starting to form.
in a clade with other medusozoans with calcium phosphate exoskeletons, suggesting that tube-building materials could have a complex early evolutionary history, possibly due to convergent losses and reduction of calcium phosphate in skeletons as it became less available through the Palaeozoic."
In other words, external skeletons probably didn't arise just once but probably evolved several times in multiple different lineages.The diversification of the animal skeleton might have been abehind the Cambrian explosion itself. Yet the sudden appearance of structural diversity in the fossil record may also speak to how hard it is for thin threads of biominerals to stand the test of time.
Even from the little evidence scientists have found, it is clear that tube-shaped animals were popping up before the explosion of animal diversity that once took our life by storm.
paleobiologist and study author Xiaoya Ma from Yunnan University in China and the University of Exeter in the UK. "This study demonstrates that exceptional soft-tissue preservation is crucial for us to understand these ancient animals."
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