rekordy: Jellyfish

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being motile. They are made of an umbrella-shaped main body made of mesoglea, known as the bell, and a collection of trailing tentacles on the underside. Via pulsating contractions, the bell can provide propulsion for locomotion through open water. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey or to defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle, and the m…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 88

Modern Venus Could Have Been Earth-like Several Hundred Million Years Ago. A major topic in planetary habitability is why, when, and how Venus and Earth diverged in their climate conditions. One hypothesis holds that Venus has been in a post-runaway greenhouse state since the solidification of its magma ocean. Another is that Venus was once Earth-like, with liquid water stable at its surface. Under the latter scenario, Venus could have remained habitable for billions of years until some mechanism triggered a runaway greenhouse—possibly the coeval eruption of two or more large igneous provinces that injected sufficient CO2 to overwhelm a putative carbon–silicate cycle.The average model age f…

Evidence: 30 • authority: 80

The oldest fish in the world lived 500 million years ago

Evidence: 21 • authority: 80

Human Language Pathway Could Be at Least 25 Million Years Old

Evidence: 21 • authority: 80

ANZ has been hit with a record $240 million fine. These lessons should have been learned years ago

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'). They are filter feeders that are typically bound to the seabed, being sessile. Sponges are one of the most ancient members of living seabed community (macrobenthos), with many species being important reef-builders. Some sponge species inhabit freshwater. Sponges are multicellular organisms consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells, and usually have tube-like bodies full of pores and channels that allow water to circulate through them. They have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The largest extant animal, as well as the largest animal to ever exist, is the blue whale. The maximum recorded weight was 190 tonnes for a specimen measuring 27.6 metres (91 ft), whereas longer ones, up to 33.6 metres (110 ft), have been recorded but not weighed. It is estimated that this individual could have a mass of 250 tonnes or more. The longest non-colonial animal is the lion's mane jellyfish (120 ft, 36.6 m). While controversial, estimates for the weight of the sauropod Bruhathkayosaurus suggest it was around 110–170 tons, with the highest estimate being 240 tons, if scaled with Patagotitan, although actual fossil remains no longer exist, and that estimation is based on described d…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Cambrian ( KAM-bree-ən, KAYM-) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period 486.85 Ma. Most of the continents were located in the southern hemisphere surrounded by the vast Panthalassa Ocean. The assembly of Gondwana during the Ediacaran and early Cambrian led to the development of new convergent plate boundaries and continental-margin arc magmatism along its margins that helped drive up global temperatures. Laurentia lay across the equator, separated from Gondwana by the opening Iapetus Ocean. The C…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Cambrian explosion (also known as the Cambrian radiation or Cambrian diversification) is an interval of time beginning approximately 538.8 million years ago in the Cambrian period of the early Paleozoic, during which a sudden radiation of complex life occurred. The fossil record of this period contains the first appearances of practically every animal phyla, implying that nearly all animal life has its origin during this radiation. It lasted between 13 and 25 million years and resulted in the divergence of most modern metazoan phyla. The event was accompanied by major diversification in other groups of organisms as well. Before early Cambrian diversification, most organisms were relativ…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Comb jellies, not sponges, might be the oldest animal group