Fossil Fish (named "Tiktaalik") Sheds Light on Transition

Maybe this should go into the Humor thread like most things involving the Discovery Institute, but it also involves "Tiktaalik" so this might be the place. The Lancet provides the quotes from DI and explains how silly their rebuttal is. It shows that even DI, when they are being honest, admits that it is an intermediate form. Of course DI then goes on to try to misdirect folks attention hoping no one notices them palm the pea.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Heh heh.By convincing themselves, by misintepreting a single quotation from Stephen Jay Gould, that mosaics are not transitional, they can actually tell the truth about the anatomy of an intermediate form and not notice that they're doing so.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Huh? What does the DI have to do with Tiktaalik? I thought that Intelligent Design wasn't supposed to be necessarily opposed to macroevolution?So much for that Trojan horse!

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I've done everything the Bible says, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff! -- Ned Flanders

It appears that AIG also tried to weigh in on the subject and as usual, just provided more laughs. Lancet looks at the AIG kinda response.Looks like as usual AIG just can't get anything right.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I think what is happening is that scientific discovery is catching up with Darwin's use contra his own position that otherwise people are complaining about catastrophes or laws of the extinction of forms.In the only letter I directed to Henry Morris, I suggested that he find a way "to predict" the gaps. Then creationists could have a subject that evolutionists, (still arguing over Fisher, Wright, and Gould), who do not generally see HOW the plan of strucutres can be actually, rather than case by case, cut out of space. Morris responded to me about "simulation" which is what Wright is(was) arguing about to Fisher over computer simulations(caried on by Wade vs etc.) of generations vs popuations vs number of alleles etc. So there was no go there.Darwin was clear about the use of terms "infinite complexity", series of forms, and Agassiz had his own use, with God, of "Earth's forms" which David Jordan changed into "present forms" and segregation/selection being extensive to the intensive science of inheritance and variation.If there are laws for the non-extinction of forms, and this seems to be what Darwin used Malthus for, perhaps wrongly, then THIS is what this fossil is about. But because evolutionists are too held up on sexual and selection since the 60s I always expected creationists to look closer at how Gould may be wrong about D' Arcy Thompson (all is not Kaufmann order for free). Darwin had said he could not single file a class of creatures. This fossil is suggesting that Darwin was wrong.I have given some thoughts "to the soft" parts, as I had not, so far , in my contribution above in this thread. But the rough results, which explain electric field receptivity in fish, reptiles and mammals, may be more coarse than Wright's complaint to Fisher, but I will post it nonetheless, in the near future. This may show how bones can exist in muscle and not be supportaive of caught flat footed weight and in the extended implication of the relation of force and form show how the creationist position is not lessened. It was Darwin who raised the issue of electric organs in fish. Faraday asked if fish can be ALTERNATIVELY a conductor and an insulator BUT NO ONE HAS SHOWN how Wright's surface of peaks and valleys may be related to co-optation of the lateral line system into a general nerverous system functionality of the sphere of Maxwell's thought that Heavyside dissed for vectors. I think quarternions show that an average environment under Darwin's notion of laws of extinction of forms can be revised under computer simulations of roations in 3-space thus Lewontin would also be wrong to say that no such thing exists for biology as does motion in a straight line without impressed forces does (did ) for physics.Off soap box, substance pending...Edited by Brad McFall, : link-->thread

http://www.sciencedaily.com/...ases/2014/01/140113154211.htm

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However, only specimen blocks containing the front portion of Tiktaalik have been described thus far. As the researchers investigated additional blocks recovered from their original and subsequent expeditions to the dig site in northern Canada, they discovered the rear portion of Tiktaalik, which contained the pelves as well as partial pelvic fin material. The fossils included the complete pelvis of the original 'type' specimen, making a direct comparison of the front and rear appendages of a single animal possible.

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The scientists were immediately struck by the pelvis, which was comparable to those of some early tetrapods. The Tiktaalik pelvic girdle was nearly identical in size to its shoulder girdle, a tetrapod-like characteristic. It possessed a prominent ball and socket hip joint, which connected to a highly mobile femur that could extend beneath the body. Crests on the hip for muscle attachment indicated strength and advanced fin function. And although no femur bone was found, pelvic fin material, including long fin rays, indicated the hind fin was at least as long and as complex as its forefin.

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If it walks like a duck ...

The only thing creationists will read in the whole article:

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The scientists were immediately struck by the pelvis

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What I am curious about is how well this find matches what was proposed for the back half based on previous finds of only the front portion.HBD

Too bad it wasn't a jawbone, eh? What excites me is that the pelvis is for the same fossil as the front portion, so there should be no complaints about mashing together fossils from different finds to make a skeleton based on assumption. But they probably will anyway (see Lucy's knee "controversy")

How do they know it's the same individual? The Sciencedaily article doesn't seem to make this clear.

It's from the same slab of rock. They couldn't move it all on their first trip, so it was picked up later and the prepping has only just been completed.Magnificent fossil. That pelvis is amazing!Mutate and Survive.

Because they continued the dig where they found the 'type' fossil at the end of the previous dig and stopped when they ran out of time.

Go play with Tiktaalik

quote:

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3-D scans of Tiktaalik’s bones are now available at HHMI Biointeractive flip ’em, spin ’em, rotate ’em all around and get a good look at the beast.

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Moose