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Early Man

Hobbit Prophecy: Somebody Will Take a Big Fall
April 27, 2008
The men of muddle earth are wondering what to do with their hobbit prisoners.  Elizabeth Culotta wrote in Science about the ongoing debates among paleoanthropologists about how to interpret the diminutive skeletons found in the Liang Bua cave of Flores in Indonesia, affectionately dubbed hobbits.1  After four years of study (10/27/2004, 06/06/2006, 08/21/2006, 10/11/2006), there […]
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Dinosaurs

Inferences from Old Protein
April 26, 2008
The dinosaur leg bone with the soft tissue was back in the news.  Back in 2005 (03/24/2005), a femur from a T. rex broke open during transport and was found to contain pliable tissue and blood vessels with apparent red blood cells.  This was a “phenomenon, once thought impossible” for such tissues to have survived […]
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Fossils

Evolution Revealed?
April 22, 2008
When the news reports evidence for evolution in the fossils or genes, it sounds like Darwinism has been all but proved, because scientists have observed its effects.  Can these stories withstand deeper scrutiny? Lungless frog:  Science Daily reported a frog without lungs in Borneo.  Lunglessness in tetrapods has been reported in salamanders and other amphibians, […]
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Fossils

Not Even Wrong: Darwin’s Tree Suffers Base Blow
April 11, 2008
Darwin’s “tree of life” icon is suffering another blow.  The root of multicellular life was supposed to be the simplest, most primitive animal.  Now, scientists are seriously considering that the mother of all animals was a complex animal with a gut, tissues, a nervous system and amazing light displays: a comb jelly.     PhysOrg […]
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Fossils

Evolution After the Fact
April 4, 2008
Many scientific theories are evaluated on their ability to make predictions.  Good theories suggest experiments that lead a researcher to discover new things.  In biology, however, “evolution” is a word often invoked as an after-market explanation for observations that emerged outside of the theory.  Here are some recent examples: Ant farm:  Science Daily reported on […]
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Birds

Darwin for the Birds
March 4, 2008
Here’s a flock of bird stories that have Charles Darwin on stage or in the wings, so to speak. Was Darwin wrong?  Yes!  Contra National Geographic (10/24/2004), the science news outlets are all saying today that Darwin was wrong – but only about the origin of chickens (see EurekAlert #1, EurekAlert #2 and Science Daily).  […]
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Amazing Facts

Sea Monsters Were for Real, and Other Wonders Under the Sea
February 26, 2008
National Geographic News published a story about a real sea monster.  A fossil pliosaur nearly 50 feet in length, the largest marine reptile ever found, was discovered in permafrost just 800 miles from the North Pole, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.  Scientists estimate it had such strong teeth and muscles […]
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Mammals

Oldest Bat Fossil: Was It Evolving?
February 16, 2008
A bat fossil surpassing the previous record holder for the oldest by 2 million years made the cover of Nature this week.1  The news media immediately began saying that it provided insight into evolution. The BBC News announced “Bat fossil solves evolution poser.” National Geographic called it the icing on the cake, and said that […]
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Fossils

Facile Fixes for Fossil Foibles
February 14, 2008
Can biologists see Darwin in the fossils?  Only if they look hard.  Andrew P. Hendry (McGill University) wrote in Nature that Darwin has been there all along; we just weren’t looking right.1     Hendry argues that our methods of statistically analyzing the fossil record are guaranteed not to see Darwin.  To explain the patterns […]
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Fossils

Horseshoe Crabs Unchanged Since Ordovician
January 28, 2008
A fossil horseshoe crab has been discovered in Canada that pushes back their origins at least 100 million years in the evolutionary timetable.  The previous record placed these marine arthropods in the Carboniferous (350 million years BP in the geologic column); others were known from the Jurassic.  “Both the Carboniferous and the Jurassic fossil discoveries […]
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Biology

Walking Fish Gets Good Mileage
January 16, 2008
In 2006 (04/06/2006), 05/03/2006), Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago announced his missing link: Tiktaalik, a fish with wrist bones that he claimed were transitional between fish and four-footed creatures, or tetrapods. Since then he has taken his fish on the road and is getting good mileage for evolution.
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Birds

Dinosaur Fossil Shows Exquisite Skin Detail
January 9, 2008
More imaginary feathers on a dinosaur have been discovered.  A BBC News article shows a cartoon of a dinosaur with feathers on its arms.  This is strange, because the paper it refers to makes no claim about feathers – only that certain structures had been interpreted as feathers by some.     The original paper […]
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Dumb Ideas

Two Fossil Explosions Are Better than One
January 5, 2008
“If one is good, two is better” might work with cookies, but not with headaches.  Evolutionary paleontologists have just gotten a second headache and seem almost happy about it.  How can this be?  Read this article in Science Daily to learn how some evolutionists seem to be masochists.  As if the Cambrian Explosion were not […]
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Dinosaurs

What Mean These Bones?
December 12, 2007
Fossils found in unusual conditions and strange locations tell a silent story.  Humans often cannot resist making up their own versions of the plot.  Consider the following discoveries.  Listen to the stories told about them, and ask: what is the probability the stories are true?  How could we ever know?  Who is qualified to be […]
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Fossils

Evolutionists Explain Living Fossils
December 4, 2007
Here’s an old “evolutionary puzzle” to challenge your local Darwinist: explain living fossils.  Many living animals and plants were known only from the fossil record, thought to have gone extinct many millions of years ago, only to turn up in a local meat market or remote forest.  Science Daily tackled this question in the Nov. […]
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