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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 02:25:00 am

Title: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 02:25:00 am
No, this isn't a thread about aliens in the Whitehouse.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29054889

Basically, a creature found in a sea-dive a few decades ago has joined one of only a few species in defying current indentification conventions. Seems to be a leftover from the Ediacaran expansion and scientists are struggling to find exactly where it fits in with current definitions.

To quote : "We think it belongs in the animal kingdom somewhere, the question is where".

Love this kind of stuff, just goes to show how much there is not only to discover, but that we've already discovered, we just haven't realized it yet.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Luis Dias on September 04, 2014, 05:02:40 am
Quote
A mushroom-shaped sea animal discovered off the Australian coast has defied classification in the tree of life.

EVIDENCE THAT EVILUTION IS A LIE AMIRIGHT OR AMIRITE
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: The E on September 04, 2014, 05:46:17 am
To quote : "We think it belongs in the animal kingdom somewhere, the question is where".

You read something like that, and you know you're in uncharted territory.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Phantom Hoover on September 04, 2014, 07:35:43 am
I don't think it can really beat the time biologists realised that there's actually this huge group of prokaryotes that didn't actually fit into the fundamental taxonomy of life they'd set up.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Goober5000 on September 04, 2014, 10:28:24 am
Discovering new creations is always awesome. :D  The funny thing is that we know more about the Moon than the deep ocean.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Grizzly on September 04, 2014, 10:31:35 am
Discovering new creations is always awesome. :D  The funny thing is that we know more about the Moon than the deep ocean.

Solid proof that nobody had their priorities straight in the cold war :P
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Phantom Hoover on September 04, 2014, 10:40:30 am
Well I mean the moon is pretty easy to get to and has excellent visibility compared to the deep ocean.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Aardwolf on September 04, 2014, 12:02:20 pm
And Goob calls them "creations"  :blah:
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 12:09:07 pm
Whether created by a series of amazing chemicall/environmental events or an over-arching deity, they were kind of created, from a certain point of view. Just bend your interpretation a little for the sake of non-confrontational conversation ;)
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: InsaneBaron on September 04, 2014, 12:23:47 pm
Nifty! I always found it funny that we can see what's on the moon so easily from so far away (cheap telescope is all you need), but in order to find out what's on the ocean floor we actually need to get within spitting distance.  :P
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Bobboau on September 04, 2014, 12:39:21 pm
it's a shame they couldn't get DNA from them due to the preservation method, these things could have shed some light on the Ediacaran animals.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 01:41:57 pm
I think understanding these 'anomalies' will probably be easier once we start to investigate extra-planetary life and begin to understand the nature of evolution more clearly, 'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral' is probably going to be far too vague an set of interpretations in the future.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Bobboau on September 04, 2014, 02:02:09 pm
well, it already is, if you look at the recent history of taxonomy they have revamped it a few times in just the last few decades.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Mongoose on September 04, 2014, 06:16:15 pm
Yeah, half of the "kingdoms" I learned about in grade school are no longer in functional use as-is.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 07:08:12 pm
Yeah, I kinda learned them 40 years ago, also, there's things like Fungi for a start, which were causing confusion even back then. But it is always fascinating to see what other roads nature can find to develop along.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: deathfun on September 04, 2014, 07:23:08 pm
Whether created by a series of amazing chemicall/environmental events or an over-arching deity, they were kind of created, from a certain point of view. Just bend your interpretation a little for the sake of non-confrontational conversation ;)

Yes... good... no one suspects anything
There were no genetic experiments that led to this... none at all...
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Flipside on September 04, 2014, 07:26:19 pm
Don't worry, even as we speak the unsuspecting human guinea-pigs are having the X-Gene implanted into their systems.

This new creatures DNA allow us to reach a new level in the power of 'floating around and not doing much', today, people on airbeds in Spain, tomorrow, the World!
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: Nuke on September 04, 2014, 08:03:34 pm
the article pretty much says 'catch me another one so i can look at its genes'.
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: S-99 on September 05, 2014, 10:40:42 pm
Discovering new creations is always awesome. :D  The funny thing is that we know more about the Moon than the deep ocean.
The moon is devoid of life, easier to observe, not cloaked by anything, and it's terrain is rather easy to predict.

I likely compare the moon to earth in this case as an orbiting ball of paper refuse with it's only use being gravitational presence for the tide (maybe a few more things too). The earth is way more complex. Considering the cost of going to the moon is pointless. Going there cost way more, but what was the point aside from just going there?
Title: Re: The 'Aliens' among us.. hint.. not about Aliens.
Post by: watsisname on September 07, 2014, 04:21:17 pm
Quote
Going there cost way more, but what was the point aside from just going there?

Just so that we can say we know more about the Moon than the deep ocean. :p