Blatchford 200 - Darwin 200

Posted by John Blatchford Jan 11, 2009

I thought I should write a 'big' article for my 200th - so I have tried a brief history of life in the oceans.

Earth History in 400 Words

Of course this is an impossible task! - so I limited myself to the briefest of sketches and only mentioned the major events. Anyway, I suppose that any more detailed review of past life in the sea would rightfully come under 'palaentology' and not 'marine biology.

The only three links that I used were to coelacanths, marine reptiles, and marine mammals - I did not even mention the birds (penguins) due to lack of space.

It would have been interesting to talk a bit more about the nature of the five mass extinctions: how asteroid impacts, global warming and global cooling have all played their part. There just was not space.

The Early Fossils

Among the most enigmatic of the early multicellular marine animals are the 'ediacarans' - strange experiments in the manufacture of a complex animal. These were all wiped out, so I left them alone!

Modern Oceans

I suppose that most of my writing on Suite101 (as FW for Marine Biology and Oceanography) is about life in the sea in modern times, so all I did in this article was to point out the damage humans are doing. (This is a common theme through most of my articles, where I try to spell out exactly what the problems are.)

Darwin 200

Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago. He gave us an explanation of evolutionary change over time, in a way that was accessible to the literate public of his time. His views changed the world, and it can be argued that he created modern biology. It is ironic that 150 years after he descibed so many creatures, and suggested how they might have evolved, we are busy wiping them out!