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HOD LIPSON TED TALK. https://lnkd.in/d9mJhxh View in LinkedIn

CAMBRIAN TRANSFORMATION. "Numerous phyla were present in the early Cambrian, whereas before the base of the Cambrian (dated at 543 My ago) only the enigmatic Ediacaran animals are found." https://lnkd.in/d-B5nwz View in LinkedIn

EVOLVED VIRTUAL CREATURES. Purple spring. Extraordinary. https://lnkd.in/d9nVTWu View in LinkedIn

CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION. https://lnkd.in/dG9YQPv View in LinkedIn

CROSSING THE GAP. "Evolve virtual creatures and 3D print them to walk in the real world." https://lnkd.in/dpCy5Kr View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the Cambrian explosion of animal body plan diversity, and its subsequent mysterious abatement. To call the abatement locked or canalized is simply to use a fancy word that is a descriptor of events, not an explanation. Did these creatures saturate geometric constraints with their genetic toolkit? There are not infinite geometries available to form and structure. For example, there are a finite number of crystal options in the natural world. Or was there another constraint operating? View in LinkedIn

LOSS OF PLASTICITY. "Early animals may have been less restrained in their development as they were not yet “canalized” or “locked”. In other words, as the initial blueprints of the first body plans were being laid down, it became increasingly less likely that mutations resulted in major body plan alterations without catastrophic consequences for viability." https://lnkd.in/dTKCkih View in LinkedIn

THEORIES FOR THE SLOWDOWN. "Several theories have been put forward to explain the reduction in the rate of animal body plan diversification following the Cambrian, including the importance of changes in the environment, competition and ecology, the structure of fitness landscapes, and developmental canalization." https://lnkd.in/dTKCkih View in LinkedIn

WHY DID DIVERSIFICATION SLOW? "Assuming that the Cambrian explosion happened because the environmental conditions were permissive and because the “molecular toolkit” by that time was rich enough to produce diverse multicellular animals, it is perhaps surprising that morphological diversification did not continue in the same rate." https://lnkd.in/dTKCkih View in LinkedIn

DOUBTS. "There is considerable uncertainty about the number, nature, and timing of early creative 'explosions'." https://lnkd.in/d-B5nwz View in LinkedIn