The reading asserts that agnostids, group of marine animals extinct million years ago, were from arthropods, relatives of modern insects. Although the fossils' information calls into question their eating and behavior. The lecturer, however, finds the idea dubious and casts doubt on the reasons proposed by the reading passage.
The author argues that agnostids might have been free-swimming predators which could hunt smaller organisms in oceans. Conversely, the lecturer brings up the idea that if they had been like other hunter anthropoids, agnostids would have had their hunter charasteritics such as big eyes to chase their prey. On the Contrary, they had tiny undeveloped eyes which are more likely to blind and even more they aren’t any sign of other senses to help agnostids in finding prey.
Furthermore, the reading passage holds the view that agnostids like primitive anthropoids had lived on the seafloors which help them to survive either by scavenging dead organisms or grazing bacteria. On the contrary, the professor underlies the fact that seafloor anthropoids didn’t have the ability to move fast and freely. Although, they move slowly and stay in local areas. As a result, they occupied small geographic places which they originate from. However, the signs of dwelling in multiple geographical areas which have large distances from each other throw doubts on scientists without special ability this easy movement is highly unusual.
Finally, the reading questions the possibility of agnostids as parasites, micro organisms live on and feed off larger organisms because many species of modern anthropoids are parasites such as fleas, ticks, and mites. In contrast, the speaker dismisses this issue due to the fact that if they had been like parasites, their population would not have been large because too many parasites kill the host orgasm which they had lived in. But the discovery of fossils show their population was large and a vast amount of them exists in individual fossilized animals, so they couldn’t be parasites.
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