Fossil Fish Sheds Light on Transition (Evolution)

[Zenlitened]

Fossil Fish Sheds Light on Transition

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 5, 2006
Filed at 1:06 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists have caught a fossil fish in the act of adapting toward a life on land, a discovery that sheds new light one of the greatest transformations in the history of animals.

(snip)

''It sort of blurs the distinction between fish and land-living animals,'' said one of its discoverers, paleontologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago.

(snip)

... its front fins had bones that correspond to a shoulder, upper arm, elbow, forearm and a primitive version of a wrist, Shubin said. From the shoulder to the wrist area, ''it basically looks like a scale-covered arm,'' he said.

''Here's a creature that has a fin that can do push-ups,'' he said. ''This is clearly an animal that is able to support itself on the ground,'' probably both in very shallow water and for brief excursions on dry land. On land, it apparently moved like a seal, he said.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Landfish-Fossil.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. see this thread in GD for more links...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x850190

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Quick! Someone memorize this article before it gets burned!

[windy252]

4. I was going to say destroy the fish fossil

sarcastically but you beat me to it with the idea.

[fshrink]

3. Check the following too

for a more complete picture http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041030215341.htm

[Broadslidin]

5. Ah Yes, Our 385 Million Year Old Cousins......!

And from BBC World News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4879672.stm
(Photograph of "Missing Link" included.)

Know wonder,
we (including the cat) are always fascinated
while watching the little nippers
frolic about doing unmentionables in our unfrozen ponds....!

[alfredo]

6. Just another stumbling block put there by Satan

I see there was also a turkey-like Dino found in Utah. They have video of it on cnn.com. They should have called it Orrin.

[daleo]

7. Undoubtedly an animal that fell overboard from Noah's ark

It collided with a fish at such a high speed that the bones of the two were all mashed together, resulting in this confusing fossil. The whole thing can be compared to the famous chocolate and peanut butter collisions that produced the peanut butter cup. This is basic Fundamentalist Christian science.

[mikeytherat]

28. The new "fossil fish" is a trick from SATAN to make us think evo is real!

Now, peanut butter cups, those HAD to come from God! :9

(which is strange 'cuz fundies don't believe in peanut butter cups; don't like them thangs minglin' like that - t'aint right, ya know?)

mikey_the_rat

[Ladyhawk]

8. It's a trick to test our faith.

Besides, the ability to do push-ups doesn't mean the fish was changing into a bear or something. :P

[mikeytherat]

29. Bears do push ups?

I mean, I've seen 'em driving little cars at the circus, but push ups?

:P

mikey_the_rat

[DBoon]

9. it's micro-evolution

the arms were really small, so it doesn't count

[Ladyhawk]

35. ROTFLMFAO! :) n/t

[xchrom]

10. that head looks amazingly crocodillian.

[Ladyhawk]

36. Yeah, when someone first posted the pic, I thought it WAS a crocodile.

I'm sure there are differences in the skull structure, but damn. There's definitely a resemblance.

[MGKrebs]

11. I think it's Martian.

This picture is from one of the Mars Rovers. I think we squished one when that thing landed.

[WinkyDink]

12. It's a croc! HAHA!

Or a gator.
So, maybe it's a NEW species, per se, and not a transitional species.

[True_Blue]

13. Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution

Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish and land animals, showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than 375m years ago.

Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described today in the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds.

As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show evidence of some higher power.

Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, said: "Our emergence on to the land is one of the more significant rites of passage in our evolutionary history, and Tiktaalik is an important link in the story."

more....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1747926,00.html

[WindRavenX]

14. it's a trick to test our faith!

:sarcasm:

[Ecumenist]

19. Sadly, Windraven, there are far too many people

who have this type of Luddite reaction to anything that is outside the guidelines that these types place on there image of God. I am a Christian and I have never understood why there has to be such a chasm between science and faith, creationism and evolution. I majored in biology in college and I had had many discussions about my belief and how I viewed the world of science considering my belief in God. Never saw a problem and in fact, have always considered myself to be what I term, evolutionary creationist. This was something that was instilled in me from my earliest recollection and I was taught that if God created all things, it wouldn't make sense to believe that He didn't have at least a heavy hand in science. After all, anyone with at least a basic idea of how languages translate one to the other understands that although it's possible to literally translate one language to another, the meaning is often COMPLETELY LOST in that translation IF there has been no allowance for transliteration or the transfer of the actual meaning of whatever word, statement or idea with that translation.
That being said, it's not a leap of faith, (no pun intended, I think), to realise that many passages in the Bible weren't fully and wholly translated. Things were transposed and substituted by scribes who weren't what we would call expert linguists, editing out and adding words, phrases and terms, often changing what the original meaning was completely. I notice that the people who call themselves fundamentalists conveniently leave out parts of the Bible that don't conform to or support their stances but all the same, there are passages that talk about the difference in time, (1 day with God is as a thousand years with man), etc.
Who's to say what kind of time passed in the creation of the Universe and why would it be heretical to say that there is no conflict between faith and science, to the rational and those who have TRUE FAITH, not the sunday morning Bible thumpers. I and countless like me, Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc, find it only reinforces the wonder and faith when discoveries like this "missing link" are made because they represent another piece in the puzzle. In fact, there are references to Leviathan in the old testament and it doesn't take rocket science to deduce what the author was referring to.
I've heard it said that if there were ever contact or discovery of another race of intelligent beings from another planet, if there was governmental disclosure of that fact, it would cause panic in the global population because it would cause the breakdown of religious belief, leading to the complete disintegration of civilisation as we know it. I always tried to wrap my head around that because, if anything, I believe it would serve to make God , for those of us who believe, more divine, faith inspiring because creation would extend beyond this earth and open up any possibility... the caveat here, for the true Christians and not a just some membership in a boot-licking troglodyte "church". My mother always said that God made our heads hollow to contain something other than water, though lately, you'd never know it from listening to and observing far too many fellow Americans. Alot of what they term as faith and a true belief in the Divine is actually artificial constructs based on a dogma created by other men, other humans, who are every bit and grain as fallible as the next. Frankly, speaking, Science discovery and seeking knowledge isn't the sin, IGNORANCE is and intentional IGNORANCE based on a religiously flawed dogma is a MORTAL Sin, against the same God these type profess to believe in. After all, if God created Man and everything in the earth and beyond, he gave that same man a brain and ability to use that brain to question, learn, explore and teach. Believe me WindravenX, there are many more like me than the philistines who parade before the cameras, microphones and newspaper to try to beat the rest of the the Globe into the flat form they want it to be. At times, I almost expect a new, improved Inquisition, complete with prime time burnings at the stake.
:rant:

[daleo]

33. Good post

Well stated.

[saltpoint]

15. The e-word is in there all over the place, isn't it? I hope The Guardian

sends Jim Dobson a complementary copy of this issue.

[mdmc]

16. an alien demon could have planted that there for them to find...

[MnFats]

18. it's Satan's own plan to confuse the elect!

don't read it! Don't even look at it! You risk burning in the lake of fire!

[Erika]

17. Intelligent design?

I doubt if you'll find the radical religious believe we are the after products of small brained fish. Or some of us.

[npincus]

20. Discovered: the missing link that challenges "Intelligent Design" theory

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1747926,00.html

Take THAT, Intelligent Design proponents and/or Wingnuts!


Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish and land animals, showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than 375m years ago.

Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described today in the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds.

As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show evidence of some higher power.

Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, said: "Our emergence on to the land is one of the more significant rites of passage in our evolutionary history, and Tiktaalik is an important link in the story."

[sasha031]

21. Do you notice this is only being reported in Europe

to controversial here in Jesus Land

[HeatherDawn]

23. It was reported on NPR yesterday

[npincus]

26. yea, I heard about the discovery yesterday

but have not seen seen it in the print media, and in the context of rebutting "Intelligent Design". And, of course, the UK is first to report- if it gets much press here I'll be surprised.

[rodeodance]

24. NYTimes has big article on it today.

[npincus]

27. will pick it up

when I drop my kid off at school- thanks!

[greyl]

22. ID didn't need any more challenges.

The importance of this find isn't that it puts the nail in the coffin of ID. that box was already sealed shut.
But it sure does strengthen evolutionary theory even more. :)

[rodeodance]

25. Does anyone have a good acedemic link to ID please. Thankx in advance

[tanyev]

30. A stunning new front in the War on Christians.

[Strong Atheist]

31. Silly Zenlitened,

don't you know fossils are a demonic lie?

[henslee]

32. This has to frost a few asses from the intelligent design" crowd.

[unschooler]

34. NYT: Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals

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.

In the fishes' forward fins, the scientists found evidence of limbs in the making. There are the beginnings of digits, proto-wrists, elbows and shoulders. The fish also had a flat skull resembling a crocodile's, a neck, ribs and other parts that were similar to four-legged land animals known as tetrapods.

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/science/06fossil.html?hp&ex=1144382400&en=f4bbf761f85f4c1b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[pinniped]

37. This fossilized specimen predates Earth by 374,994,000 years!

Did satan plant this to test people?

[Trish1168]

38. They made this discovery years ago....here's a picture..

http://valiante.plugnpay.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/scstore/p-76-CP.html?E+scstore