BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:On the origin of animals\, and the invention of the modern biosphe
 re - Professor Nick Butterfield\, Department of Earth Sciences
DTSTART:20151026T180000Z
DTEND:20151026T190000Z
UID:TALK59586@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Beverley Larner
DESCRIPTION:Animals pervade the modern biosphere and control how it works.
   Their unique combination of organ-grade multicellularity\, motility and 
 heterotrophic habit makes them powerful geobiological agents\, imposing my
 riad feedbacks on nutrient cycling\, productivity and environment.  Most s
 ignificantly\, animals have ‘engineered’ the biosphere over evolutiona
 ry time\, forcing the diversification of other organisms\, of themselves\,
  and indeed of the evolutionary process itself.  This distinctively metazo
 an dynamic is readily recognizable in the Phanerozoic fossil record\, but 
 rapidly dissipates between 500 and 600 million years ago.  The relatively 
 belated appearance of animals is the focus of much speculation\, with the 
 effects of limited oxygen availability currently dominating most research 
 agendas.  I will argue here that such ‘permissive environment’ hypothe
 ses fail to recognize the uniquely disruptive effects of even the simplest
  animals on environment\, and that the evolution of multicellularity funda
 mentally enhanced oxygen availability to marine organisms through the inve
 ntion of biologically mediated fluid flow – large-scale pumping\, filter
 ing and swimming.  By extension\, the convulsive biogeochemical and climat
 ic perturbations of the late Proterozoic are more likely to be the consequ
 ences than the causes of early animal evolution. 
LOCATION:Bristol-Myers-Squibb Lecture theatre\, Department of Chemistry
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR