Simple Fractal Branching Explains the Ediacaran Rangeomorphs

As explained in Stephen Meyer's book Darwin's Doubt, the Ediacaran animals (if they can be called animals at all) bear no evolutionary connection to the complex body plans that "exploded" onto the scene with great profusion in the Cambrian fossil record. That assessment is reinforced by a new analysis of some frond-shaped Ediacarans called Rangeomorphs by Simon Conway Morris and Jennifer H. Hoyal Cuthill in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The take-home message of Conway M...