A new paper, Cephalopod origin and evolution: A congruent picture emerging from fossils, development and molecules, is written up by PZ Myers on Pharyngula.
The discussion concerning the persistence of Monoplacophora as the origin of Cephalopoda, and how modern Triblidiida/Monoplacophora might fit in recalls my recent thread concerning pearls attributed to Nautilus.tonmo;179682 said:A new paper, Cephalopod origin and evolution: A congruent picture emerging from fossils, development and molecules, is written up by PZ Myers on Pharyngula.
THIS is the most pertinent and recent work (otherwise extra-molecular protein has always been assumed to be unlikely for genomic work), albeit not since duplicated by Dr. Geist or anyone else to my knowledge. Still, it gives hope for future research as techniques improve. But fossilized nacre or other shell organic material would not appear to offer such hope, given the study's determination that the fresher the shell the better.hallucigenia;180044 said:Has anyone tried working with nacre proteins? I've been planning for some time on doing something like that with ammonoid fossils that have nacre preserved, but it might work for this question too. (And then I ended up working on crinoids instead...such is life.)