Talk:Ciliophora

I recently posted this to the MicrobeWiki Admins because I couldn't set up an account, being a non-student.

> IF (and it's not too big an if), your readers are interested in the > evolutionary interrelationships of your various microbes, then they'll > probably be interested in the fossil records of microbes too. "Fossil > records?? Microbes don't DO fossils!" you may cry, but the exceptional > preservation of the Doushantuo Phosphorites of China shout differently > (and more loudly). Recent discoveries in this deposit include early > metazoan embryos (disputed, it must be said) [Xiao et al, Nature, v391 > p553, "Three dimensional preservation of algae and animal embryos in a > Neoproterozoic phosphorite"]. > > A recent publication [Li et al, "Ciliated protozoans from the > Precambrian Doushantuo Formation, Wengan, South China", in "The Rise and > Fall of the Ediacaran Biota", Geological Society London Special > Publications v286 p151-156] suggests the recovery of fossilized > ciliophora from approximately 580 million years ago. Which is an > interesting datum to compare with "molecular clocks" and genetic > phylogenies and the other tools that you're probably more familiar with. >

The Admins responded by giving me an account, and essentially telling me to get on with it. Serves me right for admitting to being a part-time correspondence-school computing student <BOO!>.

So, now I need to look around the rest of the site and see what the local norms are for dealing with fossil evidence. Hmmm, why do I get the feeling that's likely to be a first for this site?