Tuesday, March 14, 2017

multicellularity

Eukaryotes were swift to radiate
exploiting niches no archaean can
before that asteroid foreclosed their fate
they dabbled in all sorts of body
Precambrian! a world before the jaw
or teeth, but somehow predator and prey
obeyed the evolutionary law
the winners passed their genes down to this day
whole phyla flourished, but were doomed to fail
genetic innovations all laid waste
remembered only in the Burgess shale
uncounted others gone without a trace
'til mitochondria were brought in-house
one can't conceive a pterosaur, or louse

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