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Like Fox Mulder , I require to believe .
I want to believe the conclusions of a Modern composition that says octopuses are actually distance aliens whose frozen eggs first came to Earth aboard anicy meteor . I want to believe that humans , too , are aliens — the final posterity of an extraterrestrial virus that crashed to Earth 540 million age ago and send out evolution gyrate into wild new directions . I want to think that the cosmos is one giant biosphere , tossing the same building blocks of life from planet to planet in a never - ending game of cosmic hot white potato vine .
Scientists are dubious of a new paper that suggests frozen octopi eggs rode a meteor to Earth 540 million years ago.
I desire to believe these things because they are cool and fascinating — but I plausibly should n’t . Because right now , there is still almost no grounds for any of this . And investigator not affect with this bailiwick have serious reservations about its finish . [ 7 Theories on the Origin of Life ]
Still , that did not stop a squad of 33 authors from publishing a late compeer - reviewed newspaper publisher that hypothesized all of these things and more . The paper , published March 13 in thejournal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology , had a simple if unusual thesis : The Welsh explosion — that sudden outburst of biodiversity during which most mod brute groups first appeared in the fogey platter some 540 million years ago — was the direct resultant of an extraterrestrial virus that crashed to Earth in a meteor impingement .
The young paper recreate a controversial theory on the origins of spirit recognize as thepanspermiahypothesis . First proposed by one of the present field of study ’s authors and a confrere in the seventies , this theory suggests that biological life as we know it did not evolve severally on Earth , but was rather " seeded " from living - bearing comets that pummel our planet at various time throughout history .
These comets could have introduced Earth to novel life - form that develop on other planets , let in viruses , long-lasting microorganisms likeunearthly tardigradesor , as the newfangled study suggests , even fertilized fauna bollock from other universe .
The octopus in the room
For evidence of the panspermia hypothesis , the authors wrote in their unexampled newspaper , skeptics need only look tothe devilfish .
Octopuses have complex nervous systems , camera - like eyesand a mental ability for camo that evolve suddenly and without precedent in their family Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , according to the work authors . The genes for these adaptations , the authors write , do not seem to have do from octopus antecedent , but " it is plausible then to evoke [ these trait ] seem to be borrowed from a far upstage ' future tense ' in terms of terrestrial evolution , or more realistically from the cosmos at orotund . "
In one theory laid out in the paper , the authors posit that fecundate octopus eggs ram into the sea aboard an icy comet at the onset of the Welsh explosion . Another account , they purport , could be that an extraterrestrial virus infected a population of early calamary , causing them to evolve rapidly into octopuses as we know them today . [ Cambrian Creatures Gallery : photograph of Primitive Sea Life ]
Other researchers were not quick to embrace this theory . " There ’s no question , early biology is fascinating — but I remember this , if anything , is counterproductive , " Ken Stedman , a virologist and prof of biology at Portland State University , told Live Science . " Many of the claims in this newspaper are beyond speculative , and not even really looking at the literature . "
For example , Stedman say , theoctopus genome was map out in 2015 . While it indeed contained many surprises , one relevant finding was that octopus queasy arrangement genes split from the calamary ’s only around 135 million age ago — long after the Welsh detonation .
Stedman added that , for a virus , such as the RNA - base 1 have it away as retroviruses , to somehow rick a squid into an octopus , that virus would have to evolve on a world where calamary were already plentiful .
Modern retrovirus have evolved to be highly specific about which hosts they infect , Stedman said . But a retrovirus from outer space would n’t have evolved to be specific for Earth - based creatures , and " certainly not specific enough for something like a squid — unless you have monolithic amount of squids on some major planet unbelievably near to us that is spitting off all of these meteors . But I think that kind of assumption is highly unlikely , " Stedman say .
Karin Mölling , a virologist at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany , echoed this thought in a man of commentary published alongside the new paper .
While the new subject is " very useful " for think about the influence of the universe on our planet in novel way , the finding " can not be taken gravely , " Mölling wrote . " There is no evidence for it at all . "
to begin with published onLive Science .
