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Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals
by John Noble Wilford
April 6, 2006

Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.

In two reports today in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Neil H. Shubin of the University of Chicago say they have uncovered several well-preserved skeletons of the fossil fish in sediments of former streambeds in the Canadian Arctic, 600 miles from the North Pole.

The skeletons have the fins, scales and other attributes of a giant fish, four to nine feet long. But on closer examination, the scientists found telling anatomical traits of a transitional creature, a fish that is still a fish but has changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals — and is thus a predecessor of amphibians, reptiles and dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans. . . .

. . . Dr. Shubin's team played down the fossil's significance in the raging debate over Darwinian theory, which is opposed mainly by some conservative Christians in this country, but other scientists were not so reticent. They said this should undercut the argument that there is no evidence in the fossil record of one kind of creature becoming another kind. . . .

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... they have uncovered several well-preserved skeletons of the fossil fish in sediments of former streambeds in the Canadian Arctic...

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[ 09 April 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
Damn those gawdless Canadians!..

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Huh?
"Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God"
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
..Why do you fellahs always list your location as "Canada"?..

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My location is at least a location.

Not sure about the trolling thing. I'm just trying to be a true radical and a true progressive.
As in "unconventional", "going to the origin", "characterized by advancement", and "characterized by striving for change and innovation, avant-garde, liberal".

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Originally posted by Radical Progressive:
Btw, ones jokes are typically quite telling.

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Not as telling as someone having PMs turned off. That's virtually a guarantee you're a right-wing troll who will, thankfully, soon cross the line and be banned.

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Originally posted by Hephaestion:
..That's the most tedious thing about these Harpokon knuckle-draggers -- they have such a paucity of imagination and a dearth of creativity that there's not even any real challenge (forget about *fun*) when they start trying to troll. They're just aggravating, and a nuisance, rather like stinkbugs at a barbecue. Sad, that this is the best they can come up with, really. Pathetic, even.

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[ 09 April 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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'Ancient fish fossil tips the scales in favour of evolution.'

...And yet, while evolution as first conceived of by Charles Darwin in the 19th century is generally accepted as explaining the origins of man, not everyone is convinced.

...We cannot say with certainty whether one theory (evolution) or another (intelligent design) is correct, though tiktaalik rosea seems to tip the balance in favour of evolution.

What we can say is that piecing together the long-buried bones of the walking fish my help resolve the amazing riddle that is the origin of humankind.

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'Tips the scales in favour of evolution'? Yeah, like there's currently a number of different explanations for the flora and fauna of the world, and this find will sort of help one theory out a bit. Breathtaking.

Oh well, I've long since come to the conclusion that the Province is run by the terminally naive, and this just reinforces my belief.

I'll just add that any fossil which is not exactly like a fossil already found is a 'missing link'. There is nothing special about 'missing links' except that they are intermediate between other already recovered fossils.

Any fossil which is intermediate is a 'missing link', but the science of evolution already has plenty of evidence of the evolution of life on earth. Missing links are great to find, but they don't offer much more than confirmatory detail of the overall picture.

The poster referred to the one-eyed cat (mentioned in another thread here as the centrepiece of a new museum of creationism). I didn't understand why a one-eyed cat would feature in a creationism museum. Now I do.

See, if evolution were 'correct', then freaks and chimeras would live and prosper and presumably breed more of themselves. (Just leave the lunacy of that for a moment.) This cat was 'wrong' so it died.

These people cannot accept evolution because it would mean that nothing is 'wrong'.
Not even homosexuals!!! The poster over there made this explicit.

According to 'Intelligent Design', those dimwits over on the Dark Side would not and could not breed and replicate themselves because they are, individually and collectively, so very wrong!

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posted by fern hill: ... See, if evolution were 'correct', then freaks and chimeras would live and prosper and presumably breed more of themselves. (Just leave the lunacy of that for a moment.) This cat was 'wrong' so it died.

These people cannot accept evolution because it would mean that nothing is 'wrong'.

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[ 10 April 2006: Message edited by: deBeauxOs ]

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Originally posted by fern hill:
. . . I didn't understand why a one-eyed cat would feature in a creationism museum . . . This cat was 'wrong' so it died. . .

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In such a case, there would need to be some advantage more crucial to survival than depth perception.

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Originally posted by fern hill:
I just learned something over on the Dark Site. No, really. They're discussing this fossil with their usual dimwittedness, but something one of them said made a lightbulb go off.

The poster referred to the one-eyed cat (mentioned in another thread here as the centrepiece of a new museum of creationism). I didn't understand why a one-eyed cat would feature in a creationism museum. Now I do.

See, if evolution were 'correct', then freaks and chimeras would live and prosper and presumably breed more of themselves. (Just leave the lunacy of that for a moment.) This cat was 'wrong' so it died.

These people cannot accept evolution because it would mean that nothing is 'wrong'.
Not even homosexuals!!! The poster over there made this explicit.

Holy moly.

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Originally posted by Serendipity:

It actually hurt when I'd tried to understand the logic behind at.

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God picking up lumps of clay, rolling them between his palms, and then tossing them on a conveyor belt, saying, "Wow, these are easy!"

This is news? That fossil was found 6 years ago.

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A fossil discovered in Canada may prove to be the missing link in the puzzle as to how fish evolved into land-dwelling animals. Such a find would have been problematic in the U.S. where, in the same week of Tiktaalik roseae's unveiling, TV's Bill Nye the Science Guy was heckled in Texas when he criticized a literal interpretation of a verse from Genesis. I know, sometimes the irony just writes itself.

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Originally posted by Wee Mousie:
[QB][/QB]

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I got a whack of fossills,ammonite's,belemite's other really cool stuff.