Trichords?

[seebs]

So, SimEarth claimed that there was a branch of life called "trichords". What were they? Can anyone tell me more about them? In particular, is it the case that, so far as we know, there are fossils of these things, but no one has seen any within the last few million years, or any living beings based on a similar structure? If it's not true, what are their descendants like?

 

[Late_Cretaceous]

I have had SimEarth for over 10 years, and I have always wondered where they got these so called trichordates from. None of my zoology texts from university mentioned such a thing.

The only thing that I could find that even came remotely close to what the authors of SimEarth described is an organism called Tribrachidium heraldicum from the Ediacardan fauna (precambrain). Here is a link

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/tribrach.html

 

[Late_Cretaceous]

This site: http://members.tripod.com/~Cambrian/Tribrachidium
describes the organism as being a lophophore - nothing mysterious there.

 

[seebs]

Interesting.

I would call that thing a mild argument for evolution; it obviously didn't succeed, so there aren't any today, but it's a lot easier to say "interesting guess, tough luck that it didn't work out" than it is to say "this was another of those mistakes God is always making".