Have you ever imagined what life would be like without bones? It's lunchtime and you're trying to eat a sandwich, but you're trying to do it without teeth, jaw or hands. Eating a sandwich for lunch would be impossible without a skeleton, and all our daily activities would also become impossible. The skeletal system is too often taken for granted. Its importance to life on Earth today is not emphasized as much as it should be. The evolution of bones is what enabled the vast differentiation of multicellular life on Earth. Dating back to around 635-545 million years ago, life consisted only of soft-bodied creatures floating in the ocean. These creatures resemble something similar to our jellyfish today. So how did we get from jellyfish to modern humans with skeletons? Beginning of Bone Formation In the article by Darja Wagner and Per Aspenberg titled Where Bones Come From, it is stated that approximately 1.5 billion years ago all life resided in the ocean, and the tectonic plates were actively shifting at this time . Bones didn't just appear out of nowhere one day, but there were several triggers that led to the transition from soft-bodied to hard-bodied life. It is the shifting of these tectonic plates that initiated the transition to bone (6). The movement of tectonic plates has released various minerals into the oceans through hydrothermal vents. One of these released minerals was calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and this mineral played a key role in bone formation (6). Calcium carbonate did two things for living organisms; it aided the decomposition of minerals that were absorbed from ocean water and also led to the ability to develop hard structures (6). Also,...... middle of paper...... "Origin and early evolution of vertebrate skeletonization." Microscopic Research and Technique 59.5: 352-72. Print.Donoghue, Philip Conrad James, Ivan James Sansom, and Jason Philip Downs. 2006 "Early evolution of vertebrate skeletal tissues and cellular interactions and canalization of skeletal development." Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 306B.3: 278-94. Print.Kawasaki, K. and K.M. Weiss. 2008. “SCPP Gene Evolution and the Continuum of Dental Mineralization.” Journal of Dental Research 87.6: 520-31. Print.Sire, Jean-Yves, Philip C.J. Donoghue, and Matthews K. Vickaryous. 2009. “Origin and Evolution of the Integumentary Skeleton in Nontetrapod Vertebrates.” Journal of Anatomy 214.4: 409-40. Print.Wagner, Darja Obradovic and Per Aspenberg. 2011. “Where Do Bones Come From?” Acta Orthopaedica 82.4: 393-98. Press.