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Birds

How Can They Call This Duck a Missing Link?
June 16, 2006
The news media are abuzz with the phrase “Missing Link” again.  This time, it’s about a fossilized duck or loon found in Early Cretaceous strata in China, announced in Science.1  The article calls it a “nearly modern” bird with soft-tissue preservation, including webbed feet, wing feathers and downy feathers.  They said it “possesses advanced anatomical […]
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Dinosaurs

Mini-Dinos Found in Marine Sediments
June 10, 2006
Sauropods were not all the lumbering giants we think of; they could be the size of a pet dog (images of Deeno in the Flintstones come to mind).  This came to light from recent discoveries announced in Germany (see BBC News and LiveScience) of adult sauropods smaller than human height, ranging five to 20 feet […]
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Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Boneyard: Dying Together Implies Living Together, Not Much Else
May 13, 2006
(Guest article)  CNN reported in an article from Associated Press that scientists have uncovered a small cache of dinosaur bones that contains bones from no other animals, and in their excitement have concluded that this means they must have hunted in packs. One expert called the discovery the first substantial evidence of group living by […]
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Fossils

Fish Forsakes Fins in Favor of Arms
May 6, 2006
A crucial fossil palaeontologists are hailing as a true “missing link” in the evolutionary record has been uncovered in the arctic.  The discovery of a well preserved species of fossil fish bridges the gap between finned fish and their four legged relatives.  This croco-fish creature, documented in Nature,1 named Tiktaalik roseae has joints in its […]
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Fossils

Limbed Snakes Initiate Evolutionary Quandary
May 3, 2006
Researchers have discovered the fossil of a snake with a pelvis and functioning legs in Rio Negro, Argentina.  Sebastian Apesteguía (Argentine Museum of Natural Science) says Najash rionegrina is not the oldest snake discovered; marine snakes have been discovered in North America as well as Eastern Europe.  However, Najash rionegrina has been considered the earliest […]
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Fossils

Tiktaalik: Evolution’s Newest Link in the Chain
May 3, 2006
Researchers have recently discovered a fossil on Ellesmere Island, located in the Canadian Arctic.  The creature is characteristic of tetrapods, four-legged organisms, and possesses a flattened body, fins, scales, ribs, and a neck.  James Owen (National Geographic News1) considers the species, Tiktaalik roseae, to be the connection between aquatic and land animals and prehistoric predecessor […]
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Dinosaurs

Sea Monster Found Under Davy Yone’s Locker
April 25, 2006
The deepest dinosaur bone ever found, a part of a Plateosaurus, has been found by Norwegians 1.4 miles under the North Sea floor.  This sets a new depth record for a dinosaur fossil.  According to LiveScience, “Researchers said it’s quite possible there are many more fossils down there.”  More on National Geographic News, News@Nature and […]
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Fossils

Walking Snake Bites the Dust
April 24, 2006
It must be missing link season.  MSNBC News announced a snake with rudimentary legs.  While exciting for evolutionary theory, it raises questions, too.  Snakes were supposed to have evolved in the water, not on land. Check out what Ken Ham said on Answers in Genesis about this latest salvo.  If the snake had legs, does […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Paper View:  Cambrian Explosion Damage Control
April 23, 2006
Like some federal official holding a press conference after a disaster, a Harvard paleontologist has tackled the unenviable job of explaining what Darwin called the most severe challenge that could be levied against his theory: the fossil record. The challenge starts with a bang...
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Dinosaurs

Step Aside, T. Rex: Bigger Dino Found
April 19, 2006
A cache of dinosaur bones, meat-eaters bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, has been uncovered in South America.  National Geographic News says the new species, Mapusaurus, exceeded the former heavyweight carnivore in size and agility.  All the bones in a river deposit were 100% from this one species, so “the chances they had been deposited randomly are […]
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Early Man

Paleoanthropologists Announce the Middle Man
April 12, 2006
In unison, the news media joined the most recent chorus over alleged fossil human ancestors: “Fossil find improves knowledge of human origins” (Live Science): “Fossils fill gap in human lineage,” (BBC News); “Ancient fossils fill gap in early human evolution” (Yahoo News); “Fossil discovery fills gap in human evolution” (MSNBC News, which adds, ‘We just […]
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Birds

Imaginary Feathers Found on “Turkey” Dino
April 10, 2006
Last month, we reported on announcements of a dinosaur fossil with imaginary feathers (02/08/2006); at least, all the news stories mentioned feathers and some had pictures of them, but the original paper said nothing about feathers.  Now, National Geographic has done it again: “Giant Turkey-Like Dinosaur Found in Utah,” the title reads, with a picture […]
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Fossils

Fish-o-pod ‘Missing Link’ Discovered: Media Goes Nuts
April 6, 2006
Evolutionists could hardly feel more relieved.  Just when anti-evolutionary sentiment is on the rise, a new fossil has been announced that gives pro-evolutionists a missing link to run up the fishpole, and boy, did the media salute.  Neil Shubin (U of Chicago) and two partners found a “tetrapod-like fish” fossil on a Canadian island.  It […]
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Fossils

Can Delicate Fossil Embryos Survive 570 Million Years?
April 1, 2006
Scientists and English and American universities are trying to understand how to preserve biological embryos such as those found in Cambrian rock claimed to be 570 million years old, reports a press release from Indiana University.  Normally, such soft tissues would disappear within a month.  “It’s like trying to fossilize soap bubbles” they said.  “Some […]
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Fossils

Chicxulub Impact Not a Global Catastrophe
March 29, 2006
In a surprising reversal of stories told for decades, it appears the dinosaurs did not die from the impact of a large meteor near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.  According to a press release from the Geological Society of America, the Chicxulub Impact occurred too early – 300,000 years too early – to have killed […]
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