Shape-shifters Once Ruled the Planet

An artist's impression of rangeomorphs. (Credit: Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill) Before sharks and whales ruled the seas as the biggest bad boys (and girls) of the sea, there were rangeomorphs, a bizarre plant-looking-animal-type … thing. They roamed the seas of Earth around 540 million years ago, absorbing nutrients drifting in the water. Rangeomorphs were the biggest thing in the game — and had the shape-eshifting skills to make themselves as big or as small as they needed. That could range from a few millimeters up to a few meters. While that may not sound huge, this was an era where complex life was rare. The adaptation likely came about so that rangeomorphs could take advantage of nutrients in a particular area. If oxygen was higher up in the environment, the rangeomorph could grow accordingly, changing its height and “leaf” shape to best absorb nutrients. The leaves grew in fractal-like patterns. The ...