Ancient life and moving fluids
Over 3.7 billion years of Earth history, life has evolved complex adaptations to help navigate and interact with the fluid environment. Consequently, fluid dynamics has become a powerful tool for studying ancient fossils, providing insights into the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of extinct organis...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2020
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| _version_ | 1797065752936710144 |
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| author | Gibson, BM Furbish, DJ Rahman, IA Schmeeckle, MW Laflamme, M Darroch, SAF |
| author_facet | Gibson, BM Furbish, DJ Rahman, IA Schmeeckle, MW Laflamme, M Darroch, SAF |
| author_sort | Gibson, BM |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Over 3.7 billion years of Earth history, life has evolved complex adaptations to help navigate and interact with the fluid environment. Consequently, fluid dynamics has become a powerful tool for studying ancient fossils, providing insights into the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of extinct organisms from across the tree of life. In recent years, this approach has been extended to the Ediacara biota, an enigmatic assemblage of Neoproterozoic soft‐bodied organisms that represent the first major radiation of macroscopic eukaryotes. Reconstructing the ways in which Ediacaran organisms interacted with the fluids provides new insights into how these organisms fed, moved, and interacted within communities. Here, we provide an in‐depth review of fluid physics aimed at palaeobiologists, in which we dispel misconceptions related to the Reynolds number and associated flow conditions, and specify the governing equations of fluid dynamics. We then review recent advances in Ediacaran palaeobiology resulting from the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We provide a worked example and account of best practice in CFD analyses of fossils, including the first large eddy simulation (LES) experiment performed on extinct organisms. Lastly, we identify key questions, barriers, and emerging techniques in fluid dynamics, which will not only allow us to understand the earliest animal ecosystems better, but will also help to develop new palaeobiological tools for studying ancient life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:33:05Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:4554e718-19d4-4c22-b934-f37d0693d1de |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:33:05Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:4554e718-19d4-4c22-b934-f37d0693d1de2022-03-26T15:07:10ZAncient life and moving fluidsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:4554e718-19d4-4c22-b934-f37d0693d1deEnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2020Gibson, BMFurbish, DJRahman, IASchmeeckle, MWLaflamme, MDarroch, SAF Over 3.7 billion years of Earth history, life has evolved complex adaptations to help navigate and interact with the fluid environment. Consequently, fluid dynamics has become a powerful tool for studying ancient fossils, providing insights into the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of extinct organisms from across the tree of life. In recent years, this approach has been extended to the Ediacara biota, an enigmatic assemblage of Neoproterozoic soft‐bodied organisms that represent the first major radiation of macroscopic eukaryotes. Reconstructing the ways in which Ediacaran organisms interacted with the fluids provides new insights into how these organisms fed, moved, and interacted within communities. Here, we provide an in‐depth review of fluid physics aimed at palaeobiologists, in which we dispel misconceptions related to the Reynolds number and associated flow conditions, and specify the governing equations of fluid dynamics. We then review recent advances in Ediacaran palaeobiology resulting from the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We provide a worked example and account of best practice in CFD analyses of fossils, including the first large eddy simulation (LES) experiment performed on extinct organisms. Lastly, we identify key questions, barriers, and emerging techniques in fluid dynamics, which will not only allow us to understand the earliest animal ecosystems better, but will also help to develop new palaeobiological tools for studying ancient life. |
| spellingShingle | Gibson, BM Furbish, DJ Rahman, IA Schmeeckle, MW Laflamme, M Darroch, SAF Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title | Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title_full | Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title_fullStr | Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title_short | Ancient life and moving fluids |
| title_sort | ancient life and moving fluids |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gibsonbm ancientlifeandmovingfluids AT furbishdj ancientlifeandmovingfluids AT rahmania ancientlifeandmovingfluids AT schmeecklemw ancientlifeandmovingfluids AT laflammem ancientlifeandmovingfluids AT darrochsaf ancientlifeandmovingfluids |