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metronews.ca Thursday, June 12, 2014
It could have been the shrimp eating us Nature magazine. Researchers find fossils with a primitive jaw precursor, an adaptation that helped vertebrates rule the world
not realize what a stunning reversal of fortunes her dinner represents. In the primordial seas where life first proliferated, arthropods — the animal family that includes presentday crustaceans — dominated in number and in size, preying on our worm-like vertebrate ancestors with impunity. But 500 million years later, vertebrates now sit at the top
A hungry homo sapiens tucking into a plate of shrimp may
seen moment: the primitive precursors of the jaw. “It was a major event in the evolution of vertebrates. After the creation of jaws, vertebrates were able to capture prey and (chew) food,” said Jean-Bernard Caron, an invertebrate paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto who co-authored the Nature paper announcing the specimens. TORSTAR news service
of the food chain, as any Red Lobster proves. On Wednesday, researchers from Toronto and Cambridge announced they had discovered 44 fossils of a primitive fish that bear a key adaptation responsible for the later success of vertebrates, including humans. Chipped out of the Canadian Rockies two summers ago, the fish fossils show a longhypothesized but never-before-
A depiction by Nature magazine of the sea creature Metaspriggina. Conway morris, Jean-Bernard Caron, Marianne Collins/nature/the associated press
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NewYork to mull banning gay ‘cures’
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New York’s Democratic-led Assembly was set to discuss a bill on Wednesday that would ban therapy that tries to change a child’s sexual orientation. Bans against gay conversion therapy have already gone into law in New Jersey and California. The American Psychological Association says that there is no evidence that the so-called gay conversion therapy can change someone’s sexual orientation. A task force found that it can cause distress and anxiety. THe associAted press
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Ahhh, now that’s the life A monkey cools off in a water tub in the premises of a Hindu temple on a hot summer afternoon in Jammu, India, Wednesday. Severe heat conditions are prevailing across northern India with temperatures soaring past 45 degrees Celsius at several places. Channi Anand/the associated press