Talk:Spriggina

In one speculative view, a spriggina would wriggle up onto a stationary frond-like, mushroom-like or plant-like lifeform, release digestive juices, let the juices loosen up the victim's flesh, and them absorb it internally.

It may actually be the mouth that was the Cambrian-explosion-triggering device, not eyesight, as is commonly speculated. A mouth allows one to eat on the run. This could explain why the precambrian critters mostly dissappeared: they were overly adapted to external digestion such that they couldn't get away from preditors and digest food at the same time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.183.137.111 (talk • contribs)


 * Cite reliable sources for this speculation, and it can be used. -- Donald Albury 11:49, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

According to Stephen C Meyer it actually exhibits glide, not bilateral, symmetry. Also according to Rodin, Szathmary and Rodin in, “on the origin of the genetic code and tRNA before translation” — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2607:FE28:207F:8700:C8F:33CF:E9DF:3A8B (talk) 22:31, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Material by User:Philcha moved from Cambrian explosion
The following could use incorporation here. Smith609  Talk  20:42, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

but its body segments seem to be offset across the midline rather than being symmetrically paired as as they are in all known arthropods;


 * ✅08:01, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

To fuse or not to fuse...
"its front few segments fused to form a head" (Introduction) would seem to contradict "The organism was segmented, with no fused segments" (Morphology).Tapatio (talk) 07:09, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Whether Spriggina has "differentiated parts" is controversial. Some reconstructions show a distinct "plow" for a head. But the fossils seem to show a more ambiguous transition from the body to the plow portion, suggesting the plow is just a thicker "segment". It's unclear what's actually going on at the "head". It matters in debates about whether Spriggina may be a single cell, or possibly a single multi-nucleus cell, as found in some existing large-cell life-forms. One interpretation is that the fact it has "trouble" forming a clear head structure is evidence of being single-celled. Another is that because the most frontal plow segment may break off, the segments just behind it are "getting ready" to be a plow by gradually thickening up, creating a kind of twisted look seen in some fossils. In this interpretation, a given segment has to grow wider to cover both left and right to serve as a proper plow. Those segments just behind the final plow are thus in mixed stages of widening/thickening, some covering say 2/3 of the width, giving the "mid head" the asymmetrical appearance seen in many fossils. This interpretation doesn't directly depend on a particular cell structure model, but may imply that each segment is a cell in itself. --146.233.0.202 (talk) 16:45, 28 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Are you proposing a change to the article? If so, please provide reliable sources to support such changes. - Donald Albury 17:54, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

strange "may have"
Just a question to those who have access to the sources: it's interesting, is there any fossil evidence for speculations like "may have been predatory", "may have borne eyes and antennae"? And about the head - I agree with Tapatio, it doesn't seem that the way of head forming is known. Stas000D (talk) 11:25, 20 August 2012 (UTC)