Saturday, May 19, 2018

Tentacles and space-suits, oh my!


I had to smile at this report.

The paper ... attempts to tackle the question of how life originated here on Earth. The researchers embrace a number of proposed explanations and discuss their implications, but one particularly interesting note is their proposal that cephalopods (squid, octopus and cuttlefish) may have originated somewhere other than Earth. Whoa.

“Evidence of the role of extraterrestrial viruses in affecting terrestrial evolution has recently been plausibly implied in the gene and transcriptome sequencing of Cephalopods,” the researchers write. “The genome of the Octopus shows a staggering level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes more than is present in Homo sapiens.”

The scientists challenge the belief that modern cephalopods evolved to their present form here on Earth and propose the possibility that those we see today are the descendants of creatures that arrived on Earth frozen in an icy comet.

“Its large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera-like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch color and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene,” the paper says, pointing to the possibility that this “great leap forward” in complexity was due to “cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs” crashing into the ocean on comets millions of years ago.

There's more at the link.

I think that's been thought of before . . .








Peter

7 comments:

Old NFO said...

That 'seems' to be a bit of a reach... Just sayin'

Sam L. said...

I vass amussssed!

Aesop said...

So the Flying Spaghetti Monster Theory is now gaining ascendancy?

More bad news for diehard Darwinists.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which people will go in endorsing codswallop, just to deny the possibility of an intelligent architect while standing in the very foyer of the skyscraper he erected.

urbane legend said...

" . . . while standing in the very foyer of the skyscraper he erected. "

Very well expressed, Aesop!

Jim said...

Maybe Lovecraft was on to something.

TheOtherSean said...

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria, or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man, who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens.

:P

paladin3001 said...

*sigh* This again? There was a paper a few years back that described cephalopods as "alien", unfortunately all the MFMSM took that one word and ran with it. Leaving the scientists that published the paper banging their heads. No octopi, squids, and other tentacled beasties are NOT aliens or come from space. It's just that they are so different from mammals that they may as well be aliens.

Would make a great sci-fi tale maybe if their DNA wasn't so terran.