Zimmer on cnidarians

Come on. You knew cnidarians are jellyfish, didn't you?

Carl Zimmer has published a very nice article on the evolution of cnidarians in the New York Times. I don't have the time right now, but I wonder if this supports or undercuts the old view of Lankester and Haeckel about the use of germ layers to reconstruct phylogenetic history at the base? This research seems to show that bilaterians (us) and jelly fish had a wormlike common ancestor at the base of the Cambrian.

Pee Zee Myashz should blog this one.

Late note: Mahirs already had blogged this one. [I wonder if tracking back to a post that tracks back to this one will cause an infinite regress and the end of civilisation as we know it? Let's see what happens.]

Blast him. I'll find something he doesn't know or hasn't heard about one day, I know I will.

Late, late note: Zimmer has put this up on his blog too. Let's see if we can make the universe disappear into a power set of black holes through recursive trackbacks...

Late, late, late note: Murzz has finally given an excellent explanation and description of this. Bless his atheist cotton socks.