Science & TechFact

Sharks existed before trees did.

Sharks have been swimming the seas for around 400 million years. The first organism that counts as a tree, Archaeopteris, grew only about 385 million years ago. When the first sharks hunted, the continents were still treeless. Since then the shark body plan has survived several mass extinctions without changing fundamentally.

Useful: 'Living fossil' does not mean primitive: a design that lasts 400 million years is extremely good.

Source: smithsonianmag.com

Biologie Evolution Zeit

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