Satan stared inquisitively at the small aquarium filled with unusual-looking shapes. Prince Vanity broke in:
“Mein Fuehrer, the spies you sent to planet Earth have just returned; what you see is but a tiny sample of the treasure they brought back.” Satan scooped up a handful of the slimy critters.
“Hmmm. Bags? Discs? Toroids? (doughnut-shaped). Am I supposed to be impressed by these pathetic objects? Are you certain these were made by our Creator? Perhaps this is just a diversionary tactic by God to distract us while he’s secretly creating something far more profound – like an Adam.” (story from Countdown To Adam, pp 208-211)
If “life” were defined as a simple cell having the ability to contain organelles, metabolize nutrients, and reproduce, then scientists agree such cells existed on earth over three billion years ago. Then suddenly, 520 to 570 million years ago (mya), a new kingdom of advance life-forms emerged: “Anamalia”. Large, complex, diverse creatures such as trilobites, brachiopods, and crinoids populate the fossil record in a geological time-period named the Cambrian. So remarkable was this event, that it is often referred to as the “Cambrian Explosion”.
From single-celled simple bacteria to highly functional, million-celled trilobites in a single bound – makes little sense? Surely there must have been some transitional life-forms, at least an ancestor of the trilobites.
In the mid-1940s Reginald Sprigg, an Australian geologist, was examining old mine workings in the Ediacaron Hills region of South Australia. Being an ardent amateur fossil collector, and believing he was walking on Cambrian-age sandstone strata, he was no doubt hoping to encounter a few well-preserved trilobite specimens for his portfolio. But what he discovered instead were casts and impressions of jellyfish-like creatures; this was particularly puzzling because jellyfish have no skeletal structure and are rarely fossilized even in the best of circumstances. Spriggs scavenged other equally strange fossils – discs, bags, and doughnuts (for lack of a better description) – and introduced them to paleontologists from around the world for further study and identification.
Intense scientific scrutiny resulted in findings, of what are now named “Ediacaron” – aged fossils, for example:
- Sprigg’s fossils should never have been preserved. The fossils were found in Cambrian strata named the Pound Quartzite, a sandstone. Even creatures with well-developed skeletal structures are poorly preserved in sandstone. But these skeleton-less animals were well-maintained – a real mystery.
- The varieties of Ediacaron types, called biota, predate (are older than) the trilobites found in nearby Cambrian rocks. At least 70 species of Ediacaron fauna have been identified from 30 locations around the world. The Ediacarons seem to have reached full diversity in an event called the “Avalon”, 575 mya; trilobites first appeared about 520 mya.
- Ediacaron biota had hydrostatic, not the hard, mineral-based bone skeletons of trilobites. These “soft” skeletons were capable of housing nerves, specialized sensory cells, reproductive cells, and organelles.
- They are extinct one-of-a-kind animals with body plans no longer in existence, and with no known descendants. Nothing like Ediacarons can be found on earth today.
What might our Creator have been up to? Surely, he would have had a purpose for the Ediacaron biota, perhaps as a “missing link” to prepare the way for the vast army of soon-to-come Cambrian animals. Or, maybe God was just expressing his creativeness, simply for his own pleasure. Does the transcendent Deity have to be ascribed a “reason” for everything he does? When I arrive in Heaven, the mystery of the Ediacarons will be added to my list of questions.
