Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic?

Authors

Edward J. Steele, CY O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation
Shirwan Al-Mufti, University of Buckingham
Kenneth A. Augustyn, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Rohana Chandrajith, University of Peradeniya
John P. Coghlan, University of Melbourne
S. G. Coulson, University of Buckingham
Sudipto Ghosh, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Mark Gillman, South African Brain Research Institute
Reginald M. Gorczynski, University of Toronto
Brig Klyce, University of Buckingham
Godfrey Louis, Cochin University of Science and Technology
Kithsiri Mahanama, University of Ruhuna
Keith R. Oliver, Murdoch University
Julio Padron, Studio Eutropi
Jiangwen Qu, Tianjin Center for Disease Control and Prevention
John A. Schuster, The University of Sydney
W. E. Smith, Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astrobiology
Duane P. Snyder, University of Buckingham
Julian A. Steele, KU Leuven
Brent J. Stewart, CY O'Connor ERADE Village Foundation
Robert Temple, The History of Chinese Science and Culture Foundation
Gensuke Tokoro, Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astrobiology
Christopher A. Tout, Institute of Astronomy
Alexander Unzicker, Pestalozzi- Gymnasium
Milton Wainwright, University of Buckingham
Jamie Wallis, University of Buckingham
Daryl H. Wallis, University of Buckingham
Max K. Wallis, University of Buckingham
John Wetherall, Curtin University
D. T. Wickramasinghe, The Australian National University
J. T. Wickramasinghe, University of Buckingham
N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, University of Buckingham

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2018

Abstract

© 2018 The Authors We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Such viruses are known to be plausibly associated with major evolutionary genomic processes. We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus. A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space. In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion – life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilised ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind.

Publication Title

Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology

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