Evidently comb jellies are a bit more complex than biologists thought they were. What we learn from this report is that observable data doesn’t always line up with the predictions of evolutionary theory. Following is an excerpt from the Christian News Network story:
Per conventional evolutionary wisdom, comb jellies are ancient animals who have roamed the seas for more than 500 million years. Because of their age and position in the evolutionary tree, scientists believed comb jellies both ingested food and excreted waste through a single opening. As a result, the Smithsonian describes the comb jellies’ anatomy as “basic,” saying the “single opening [is] where food enters, waste is eliminated, and reproductive cells are released and taken in.”
However, Browne’s videos at the Ctenopalooza workshop show a much different story. Rather than returning through the opening in which they came, waste particles actually exited through muscle-lined pores along the rear of the comb jellies’ bodies—a more complex process than anticipated.