In the beginning, life was small. For billions of years, all life on Earth was microscopic, consisting mostly of single cells. Then suddenly, about 570 million years ago, complex organisms including animals with soft, sponge-like bodies up to a meter long sprang to life. And for 15 million years, life at this size and complexity existed only in deep water.
Scientists have long questioned why these organisms appeared when and where they did: in the deep ocean, where light and food are scarce, in a time when oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere was in particularly short supply. A new study from Stanford University, published Dec. 12 in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that the more stable temperatures of the ocean’s depths allowed the burgeoning life forms to make the best use of limited oxygen supplies.
The Stanford team, in collaboration with colleagues at Yale University, propose that the need for a haven from (temperature) change may have determined where larger animals could evolve. “The only place where temperatures were consistent was in the deep ocean,” Sperling said. In a world of limited oxygen, the newly evolving life needed to be as efficient as possible and that could only be achieved in the relatively stable depths. “That’s why animals appeared there,” he said. (1)
Chaos. Out of order.
Order. Out of chaos.
Life out of death.
Death as the result of life.
The universe tries to talk.
But only the deaf ones will listen.
Where there is change, there will be stability.
Where there is stability, there will be change.
And only the blind ones will see.
Seek yourself again.
In the ocean depths.
Where you used to be.
But are not anymore…
Swimming in the surface you are now.
Trying to make out the meaning of the waves.
But the foundations lie deep beneath.
Seek yourself again.
In the ocean depths.
Where you used to be.
But are not anymore…