Fossils Show Up Earlier than Evolutionists Thought

“Earlier than thought” is a frequent phrase heard in Darwinian paleontology. Here are two more examples.

Earlier Walking Dinosaurs

South Africa’s largest dinosaur upends theories of how four-legged walking began (Nature). To “upend” something is to turn it upside down. Evolutionary ideas of how walking evolved have been upended, according to this piece.

Researchers have discovered fossils from South Africa’s largest dinosaur yet — a find that they say changes their understanding of how four-legged walking evolved in this group of animals….

An evolutionary paleontologists says that finding such a heavy walker shows that “we don’t know the dinosaurs of South Africa as well as we thought” —

But the find is even more significant because it seems to show that quadrupedalism emerged in this lineage of dinosaurs at least 10 million years earlier than thought — and then disappeared before returning again.

“We thought [quadrupedalism] might be a one-time evolution: a quadruped walks once, is successful, and it sticks in that lineage,” says Choiniere.

Newly described South African walking sauropod. Credit: Viktor Radermacher/Instagram Viktorsaurus91/University of the Witwatersrand

Do they have any idea how many beneficial mutations would be required to allow for upright walking? Think of all the nerves, muscles, tendons, blood vessels, and changes to body systems that would have to be modified so that they work together to allow a five-ton dinosaur to walk. If a tendon gets longer but a muscle cannot attach to it, the dinosaur is lame. If the heart doesn’t become more powerful to support the extra blood vessels, the dinosaur dies. Thinking this could happen together is tantamount to believing in multiplied chance miracles. And now, they have to believe these miracles occurred “earlier than thought.” Not only that, their belief system requires them to say it “emerged,” then disappeared, then emerged again! All those miracles had to be repeated in the next group!

How can anyone believe that? The only way is to make Darwin a tinkerer in his lab, running experiments. The subtitle reads, “Fossils from 12-tonne dinosaur suggests quadrupedalism was an evolutionary ‘experiment’ in this lineage.” Later, the article repeats the personification fallacy, but even other Darwinians have trouble accepting it.

This suggests that there was evolutionary experimentation — some sauropodomorphs had quadrupedalism and then the group lost it, says Choiniere.

That claim is “controversial”, says Michael Benton, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol, UK. Unlike later sauropods, L. mafube’s legs flexed out to the sides, a stance that is typically able to carry less mass than columnar limbs, which could support truly massive weights.

“What’s needed next is a true biomechanics test of whether 12 tonnes is the maximum size an animal can reach without having columnar limbs,” he says.

Earlier Trees

Researchers add surprising finds to the fossil record (Phys.org). “A newly discovered fossil suggests that large, flowering trees grew in North America by the Turonian age, showing that these large trees were part of the forest canopies there nearly 15 million years earlier than previously thought,” scientists from Adelphi University reported. As expected, any story dealing with angiosperms obeys the DAM Law (Darwin’s Abominable Mystery):

“Since Darwin, the evolution of flowering plants has been a topic of debate for paleontologists because of their cryptic fossil record. Our paper shows that even today it is possible for a single fossil specimen to change a lot about what we know about the early evolution of the group.

The Darwinians also found a way to drag climate change into the discussion.

The paper in Science Advances adds more details about the find. In “A new fossil assemblage shows that large angiosperm trees grew in North America by the Turonian (Late Cretaceous),” Jud et al. say, ” this discovery demonstrates that angiosperm trees approaching 2 m in diameter were part of the forest canopies across southern North America by the Turonian (~92 million years ago), nearly 15 million years earlier than previously thought.” These were not itsy-bitsy angiosperms, either:

This discovery demonstrates that angiosperm trees approaching 2 m in diameter were part of the canopy by the Turonian nearly 15 Ma earlier than previously thought.

We report new and unexpected floral and faunal occurrences from a severely underrepresented time in the terrestrial geologic record of North America. Among these newly reported occurrences are chondrichthyan, testudine, crocodyliform, and ornithopod remains and fern, conifer, and angiosperm megafossils. This Paraphyllanthoxylon is the earliest documented occurrence of an angiosperm tree more than 1.0 m in preserved diameter. Our findings demonstrate that by the Turonian, flowering plants diversified to effectively fill the full range of heights available to land plants.

How did that happen? In Darwinism, stuff happens. Flowering plants diversify, filling the full range of heights. The spirit of Darwin shouts, “Let the earth bring forth flowering plants and trees, evolving into new kinds by blind, mindless processes.” In the evolving  Darwin creation myth, stuff keeps happening “earlier than thought.”

Earlier Life

Update 10/04/18: This one sets a record for “earlier than thought.” New Scientist announces, “Life may have begun on Earth 100 million years earlier than we thought.” They are now suggesting that life originated 4.1 billion years ago, when the Earth was still scorched after a supposed giant impact that allegedly formed the moon. “We can go very deep in time, which we never thought was possible,” one storyteller commented. Holly Betts runs this idea up the flagpole at The Conversation, hoping somebody salutes.

Thought by whom? By Darwinians. Creationists believe angiosperms were created on Day 3, just thousands of years ago, not millions. Then dinosaurs were created on Day 5, ready to eat the angiosperms as they walked upright to reach the tall trees. Creationists don’t need to keep revising their timeline, because they have the Eyewitness who tells us what He did. They just watch the God-denying materialists get their timeline wrong over, and over, and over again. We like to remind them that everybody believes in miracles. You either believe in intelligently-designed one-time creation events, or you believe in miracles of chance.