When you agreed to be an impartial civilian participant on this voyage, you were just hoping to get a cheap flight home. But once you saw this beautiful planet, you couldn't help but get involved. L-305 is everything you had always dreamed of as a kid in the closed-in metropolises of Earth. Compared to Earth this place is the honest-to-gosh Garden of Eden - fresh air, open space, plenty of land. Houses! Real houses, like in your Grandma's old photos - no run-down apartments and 70-story complexes. Some of the other crew members worried about "alien monsters" and things, but all it turned out to be was a couple of sea slug-like predators and simple trilobites. What were they compared to the viruses, animals, and gangs that ravaged Earth? Walking through the ghostly city by the shore you came upon government files left unlocked, empty homes and vacant businesses. These people had left homes, factories, businesses behind - and despite all their reassurances the investigative team still didn't know exactly what had made those early colonists leave - but it wasn't for the reasons people have suggested. Even though you're not a scientist, you have a stake in this important decision, too. You have a week to learn enough about this planet to convince a panel of judges that L-305 should be colonized. Luckily, you have access to a computer and can read the following sources:
Leads and Sources
Magazines and Articles:
"When Life Exploded," J. Madeleine Nash. Cover Story Time Magazine December 4, 1995.
"On Embryos and Ancestors," Stephen Jay Gould. Natural History 7/98-8/98, p. 20.
"The Evolution of Life on the Earth," Stephen Jay Gould. Scientific American October 1994, p. 85.
"Breathing Room for Early Animals" (Oxygen), Andrew H. Knoll. Nature Vol. 382, July 11, 1996, p. 111.
"The Big Bang of Animal Evolution," Jeffrey Levinton. Scientific American November 1992.
"Hypersea Invasion," Carl Zimmer. Discover October 1995, p. 76.
"The Emergence of Animals," Mark McMenamin. Scientific American April 1987, p. 94.
"Life’s Grand Explosions." (theories on why the Cambrian explosion occurred), Lori Oliwenstein. Discover January 1996, p. 42.
"The Molecular Explosion," Henry Gee. Nature Vol. 373, February 16,1995, p. 558.
Internet Sites:
The Divisions of Precambrian Time
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambrian/precambrian.htmlLife of the Vendian
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/vendianlife.htmlLearning About the Vendian Animals
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/critters.htmlOxygen Pulse and the Evolutionary Expansion of the Metazoans
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/8200/Oxygenation.htmlCambrian Explosion Website
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_02.html
Books:
The Emergence of Animals: The Cambrian Breakthrough. Mark and Dianna McMenamin, 1990, Columbia University Press.
The Crucible of Evolution: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals. Simon Conway Morris, 1998, Oxford University Press.
Biology. N.A. Campbell, 1987, Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Co.