B*tch I’m About to Blow up — The Cambrian Explosion
How my theory explains the 540-million-year-old mystery
Here’s a cheeky way to remember the estimated time of the Cambrian explosion.
I have never thought about it until I considered writing this article. Blame the creative juices. They stirred this.
So, there’s a sex position that involves a 9 and 6. Yes, that position.
This is a position known only to humans, at the very least.
The product? No children. The product is 0. Let us call this the evolutionary product.
The other product, of 9 and 6, is 54. This is the mathematical product.
When you attach the evolutionary product to the end of the mathematical product, you get 540.
540 million years ago — the period when the Cambrian explosion happened.
Who would have thought a messy act would birth a neat way of remembering facts?
Now, back to evolution
540 million years ago.
Estimates point towards such a time when animals of all types, shapes, and sizes sprung into the evolutionary stage. This happened during the Cambrian period. It was an explosion of new creatures.
This immense diversity of animals has puzzled many researchers for the longest time. There is no definitive explanation.
It becomes more difficult because we cannot reverse the hands of time. In evolution, most of our best solutions are retrodictions to match fossil records. Retrodictions are predictions but in the past.
Evolutionary biologists try to predict what happened in the past using their ideas. Darwin developed his idea and suggested it explained the origin of species.
Since then, scientists have developed several ideas about the Cambrian Period. The commonest one has to do with the surge of oxygen levels.
Oxygen
Oxygen is a poison.
Let that sink in.
Take a deep breath.
Just like that, you have taken poison.
Mindfulness trainers have been telling you to take poison all this time. After sparing your time and emptying your pockets (I have nothing against mindfulness).
Anyway, it is poisonous, at least as far as large-bodied organisms are concerned.
Oxygen is a poison because it can lead to harmful downstream effects.
For instance, it can trigger the formation of charged particles in the cell, destroying its neat organization. James Lovelock further noted the steep relationship between combustion and oxygen.
If oxygen were to get to over 25% in the atmosphere, spontaneous combustion is highly likely.
Lucky for us, special bacteria later came into the picture and converted poison into pleasure. These small these do matter to us.
Their innovative prowess was so profound, we incorporated these very engineers into our bodies. This is the story of mitochondria. They gave us power.
When you take a deep breath, feel the power!
Turns out mindfulness pays after all.
The present atmospheric level of oxygen is about 20%.
It is an average number because there are regions on the planet where it is very low. Tibetan highlands are one of those places. Deep sea trenches also have low oxygen. The tropics have higher levels.
When averaged, it comes to around 20%.
There is great debate about the levels of oxygen at the time of the Cambrian explosion. Regardless, the prevalent idea explaining the evolutionary event is oxygen-related. Oxygen is touted to have sparked the emergence of the diverse species we see.
A most recent theory links oxygen and stem cells to the emergence of this diversity. Stem cells are a set of multi-potential cells. They can turn into any cell in the body.
Yes, they are shape-shifters — up to a point. Then they commit to one function.
This recent idea suggests oxygen to be a trigger for the early commitment of cells. Experiments support the relationship between high levels of oxygen and the faster commitment of a cell to a particular line of work. And vice versa.
Our bone marrow is one of the regions with low oxygen levels. It is also the greatest resource of stem cells in adult human beings.
This idea gets into trouble when you consider other regions in the body with high levels of oxygen but with retained multi-purpose-like ability. For instance, the skin is one of these regions. It has cells to renew our appearance every other time.
Roughly speaking, you have a new skin every four weeks.
So oxygen does not define the cut-off for the specialization of cells. It can play a role, but not in all conditions.
Despite these bold attempts, a definitive explanation for the explosion is still elusive.
I love it when I read these ideas.
They stretch the limits of science. This creative side of science is often downplayed.
Science is artistic, just like any form of art because creativity is essential. Even more, creativity is needed to conjure experimental setups to test these ideas.
You cannot thrive as a scientist without creativity.
The Cambrian explosion is an explosion of evolutionary creativity. Here’s my creative idea.
It may not have been explosive, but it blew my mind when I first thought about it.
How my theory explains the Cambrian explosion
The biggest explanation for the surge of large and mobile organisms is associated with the rise in oxygen levels. Two key questions would be:
Did the rise in oxygen levels spark the rise in diversity?
Or
Was there a rise in diversity that just happened to coincide with the rise in oxygen levels?
Tough cookies.
My theory could have potential albeit incomplete solutions to these questions. Here’s how.
Firstly, I assert — mergers are inevitable. They become imminent when death is almost certain. Almost is the keyword.
Organisms would then consider mergers to avoid death.
Let us see how this can fit into the Cambrian picture
Oxygen levels were toxic to most organisms. The hand of death stretched its icy fingers to claim the immobile Cambrian creatures who could hardly scream in terror. Their option? Merge.
And mergers result in new entities.
That is the other spinoff of my theory.
To avoid death, you merge. To avoid rising oxygen levels, you merge. The result is increased diversity. I have described it in detail in my book, with an easy-to-picture thought experiment.
But it gets more complicated.
Organisms are always living in conditions of near-death experience.
So while my theory might highlight the emergence of diverse entities, it does not put the final nail in the coffin. We still don’t know how those two cookies listed above crumple.
The idea, however, leans on one side. That is, diversity was ongoing. Diversity is always ongoing. The rise in oxygen levels only pushed organisms to merge as a solid, practical option.
This option is evident in other settings and with similar conditions of near-death experiences.
For instance, Prof. Nick Lane elaborates on how mitochondria push cells to consider sexual reproduction when they are almost dying. If there is no merger, the cell spirals into death.
Hydra can also reproduce independently. However, during stressful conditions, they reproduce sexually. Sexual reproduction is only possible when there is another individual.
Sexual reproduction is another type of merger.
While my theory explains the different levels of mergers, it stresses the push for mergers is the conditions organisms live in — near-certain death.
Oxygen levels can be deadly when they rise. The levels experienced 540 million years ago pushed these organisms to merge. The result was explosive.
If you learned you will die in a few months or even days, you tend to become less risk-averse and more risk-seeking. You want to live a little (forgive the pun).
Mergers then become a very appealing option; a risky option, with unscaled potential. It amplifies the diversity potential of organisms.
Diversity, like J.Cole’s rise to stardom, then blows up.
The ripple effect of an explosion is more impactful than the actual explosion. Its effects are evident in the quest scientists take to explain these strange events.
If this post was the explosion, then the next one will be the ripple effect.
In the next post, I’ll guide you in understanding the emergence of diversity through mergers.
Join 500+ people by subscribing to the lightest newsletter on the Internet for a one-four-all & all-four-one weekly feed, because all you need is one alternative view, only one, to edge you closer to extreme value creation, but I give you four.
