Evolution is a Fact #11 - Tiktaalik (page 3)

Diogenesister

Love that book - "you're inner fish "by Neil Shubin!!!

Some folks still sport vestigial gill " holes" behind their ears - what more do you want!!

Half banana

Some folks still sport vestigial gill " holes" behind their ears - what more do you want!!

To hold my breath for half an hour and dive down to 300 meters...

I remember the old evolution book, one of their reasons for not accepting evolution was the lack of fossil record, that there weren't any transitional species. Of course this was a giant whopper, there have always been, but it's true that at one time there wasn't a huge amount of such fossils that were known.

Part of the problem is that many of the transitional species died out so long ago, bones don't last that long, there had to be very specific circumstances that cause bones to turn into a fossil. But they have found plenty of such transitional species and more are being found every day, by scientists like this that use targeted searches.

konceptual99

Plus, in essence everything is a transitional species.

LisaRose

Yes, you are right Konceptual. It's a common misconception that evolution is something that happened in the past and has stopped. Species will continue to evolve and adapt to an ever changing world. I read of a case where a species of fish became separated into two groups when a river was dammed up. At the time of the separation, some in each group had a particular characteristic, some didn't. This characteristic was an advantage for those in the new upstream environment, but not for those in the downstream environment. Within a few generations most of the upstream fish carried this variation while very few of the downstream fish did.

LoveUniHateExams

Good point, Lisa Rose.

One of the main criticisms of evolution in the creation book was lack of fossil evidence - particularly for ancestors of humans. I seen to remember that the blue book quoted somebody as saying that all the bones of fossil humans could fit into a coffin, or similar.

Well, look at the amount of fossil humans we have today. Near-complete fossil skeletons of Neanderthals and H. ergaster, for starters.

Half banana

Love Uni, the saying was that all of the pre-human fossils could all be put into a paper bag. That idea went back to the nineteen twenties or early thirties. Nevertheless it was dishonestly quoted by the willfully ignorant WTBTS into the sixties or later, I think it was repeated in their Evolution book.

Today there are thousands of parts of skeletons of hominins, in some caves up to seventeen almost complete specimens as in the Pit of Bones Cave in Spain. These are unusually small Neanderthal-like humans dated to 430,000 years before present.

rocketman

This thread confirms my theory: Everything is funnier when uttered in a typical Southern US drawl. Try it sometime - just start talking like a Southerner. You'll make yourself laugh, guaranteed.

I'm pretty much caught up on Cofty's fascinating series. Most of his entries have been interesting and illuminating.

Or, perhaps I should write that as "illuminatin'."

rocketman

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/birds-are-evolving-not-get-hit-cars

Another modern example (possibly) of natural selection at work.

cofty

Interesting.

I often wonder about the pheasants that run in front of my car most days, If I keep running over the stupid/slow ones will the species get smarter?

Evolution is a Fact #11 - Tiktaalik

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