Earliest Animals Asorbed Food Through Skin

Galvasean

A new discovery shows that 500 million years ago strange animals called Ediacarans absorbed nutrients through their skin much like bacteria do today. It is currently unclear if they are related to any modern animals.

But what were these odd organisms eating exactly? Back then, the ocean was replete with dissolved organic carbon, which came from decaying algae and other primitive organisms that filled the oceans. "Organisms weren't packaging poop into carbon modules that will sink to the ocean floor," Laflamme explains, "and so carbon is being diffused and circulating in the water." The Ediacarans could just slurp this nutrient-rich soup up through their skin, a process called osmotrophy. The results appear this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Full article here.


Photo by Marc Laflamme.

Capt'n Midnight

any idea what they used as an energy source ?

Capt'n Midnight

of course there would have been very little competition so metabolism levels could be low and O2 levels in the water should have been higher since cold water dissolves it better, snowball earth

Aisling(",)

im so glad that people cant do that!

we'd all be huuuuuuuge

kinda cool though,requires not chewing

wonder if they could taste?