Could Hallucigenia be the echinoderm missing link?

Hold up, what are you faulting here? People not taking your idea seriously, or people taking it seriously enough to try discussing it with you? Because contrary to what you imply here, bringing up problems and evidence you haven’t mentioned is serious discussion. If you aren’t so much as willing to look at a paper someone else thinks is pertinent, and it sure seems like you didn’t, what did you hope to gain by bringing it up on a discussion board?

If you want to forward your idea to experts, it’s easy enough to do that on your own. There are lots of papers for free on-line, and many of the others can be accessed from libraries. Even abstracts usually list contacting authors, and in my experience many of them are happy to discuss their work with anyone interested. Some even spontaneously give out copies of what they’ve written, which is a great way to learn more about a subject, or refer you to people who know still more than themselves.

Of course, I’ve usually come at them as someone wanting to learn more, instead of convinced they’ve been right enough times that they should never be questioned. Because enhancing knowledge doesn’t just mean adding details to an idea, it also means giving possible criticisms, and while interesting this idea is not at all so spectacular none will come up. Even Newton and Darwin had to put up with that, and it ultimately made their theories better.

At any rate, I think you have made it clear that considering your idea and letting you know my thoughts wasn’t a response you were interested in, in which case I’ll try to remember not to do again.

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