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Thursday, April 6, 2006

Missing Link?

Posted by on April 6 at 10:10 AM

From the New York Times:

Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375 million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought “missing link” in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.

In addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils are widely seen by scientists as a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who hold a literal biblical view on the origins and development of life.

Several well-preserved skeletons of the fossil fish were uncovered in sediments of former stream beds in the Canadian Arctic, 600 miles from the North Pole, it is being reported on Thursday in the journal Nature. The skeletons have the fins and scales and other attributes of a giant fish, four to nine feet long.

But on closer examination, scientists found telling anatomical traits of a transitional creature, a fish that is still a fish but exhibiting changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals — a predecessor thus of amphibians, reptiles and dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans.

For those of us who don’t believe in Jesus Horses, this is pretty cool news.


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Science? Bah! Next you'll be telling me you can prove "gravity" by "mathematics."

Heretic!

"they say is a long-sought “missing link” in the evolution of some *fishes* from water to a life walking on four limbs on land."

I thought the plural for fish was...fish. Silly scientists.

The devil put them there.

The use of the wording "missing link" by the media is actually kind of bogus, sort of a holdover from early days in the 19th century when there were a smaller number of transitional fossils and the there was more contention within the scientific community about the nature of evolution.

As far as proving evolution as a scientifically based fact, there really aren't any missing links. Scientists get vary excited when they find fossil forms that fill evolutionary gaps and it expands our information about the past, but at this point those forms aren't needed to prove evolution. That time passed long ago. But because the press is pandering to the large majority of ignorant citizens in this country it is useful for them to paint these sceintific results as somehow part ot the intelligent design v. evolution battle. But that battle isn't a scientific one.

On the other hand the term "missing link" has a strange historical ambiance, harkening back to older times where a hairy women from Africa could be kept in a cage all day and called "the missing link" for the edification of the paying white public.

Pharyngula has some good discussion and pictures (!) of other forms found in this transistional lineage"

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/04/tiktaalik_makes_another_gap.php#more

That article is an epitaph for rationality. Who cares what creationist have to say about an important scientific find? What do Zorastrians have to say about the Mars probe? What do Shinto priests have to say about cold fusion? We don't know because what they have to say isn't important because they're not scientist. Then why does the NYT ask Christians their opinion on a fossil?

D.A.S: The American Heritage allows either fish or fishes for the plural.

This is how I decide: Multiple fish of the same species are "fish." Multiple species of fish are "fishes."

Viva evolution!

Amy Kate is as always correct. What kind of fish are they? Salmon. How many fishes in the sea? Lots.

It's all sushi to me.

Learning something new every day. Thanks Amy Kate!

On the contrary. This "find" has merely produced TWO MORE GAPS IN THE FOSSIL RECORD.

Try again evilutionists!

Aexia, you're going to go to heaven. Right? You have faith. You know in your heart that evolution is wrong. Why are you wasting your time arguing with the damned when you could be helping the poor? Is it because you aren't really sure? Maybe the whole Adam and Eve thing is starting to seem little far fetched? Maybe you're science curious? Or maybe this web site is one of god's tests to see if you are truly a believer. Maybe I'm God and maybe I'm very angry at you right now. Maybe you should give $1,000 to a homeless shelter right now. Maybe I'm not kidding.

hahaha. Ahura, you're brilliant

(I'm serious, by the way, not being snarky)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe Aexia was making a little joke.

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