An Evolutionary Model for the Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran)-Phanerozoic Biosphere. Part One: Concepts and Exploitation of Aquatic Environments
- 1 Institute of Earth Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
- 2 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
- 3 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA
- 4 Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA
Abstract
The evolutionary history of the biosphere is characterized by aromorphosis: biological evolution by a general increase in the degree of organization without developing high degrees of specialization [ 1 ]. Four major stages of the evolutionary transformation of life (mega-aromorphoses) can be established in the recorded succession of the Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran)-Phanerozoic aromorphoses reflecting changes of the dominant groups. They are defined by the appearance of archetypes ensuring the possibilities of a prolonged and diverse rise of the level of their organization leading to significant increase in the activity of living organisms and their emerging independence from the environment. A successive series of developmental stages exploiting of the aquatic environment of the Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran)-Phanerozoic biosphere can be established based on their dominant groups: the biospheres of protozoans, proto-metazoans, protobilaterals, fishes and amphibians.
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