EVOLUTION:
Is the "Big Bang" in Animal Evolution Real?
Lars S. Jermiin, Leon Poladian, Michael A. Charleston
The debate on the origin of animals remains topical. In their Perspective, Jermiin et al. discuss the study by Rokas et al. in the same issue, which concludes that the ancestors of living animal phyla arose in two rapid episodes of diversification. Their study goes some way to reconcile the conflicting fossil and molecular data, but Jermiin et al. argue that the debate should perhaps continue.
L. S. Jermiin is at the School of Biological Sciences, L. Poladian is at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, and M. A. Charleston is at the School of Information Technology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. E-mail: lars.jermiin{at}usyd.edu.au All authors are members of the Sydney University Biological Informatics and Technology Centre (SUBIT), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.