Fetus' Feet Show Fish, Reptile Vestiges

[Bjornsdotter]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060515/mammalfeet_arc.html?source=rss


<<May 18, 2006 — The feet of human embryos taking shape in the womb reveal links to prehistoric fish and reptiles, a new study finds.

Human feet may not look reptilian once babies emerge from the womb, but during development the appendages appear similar to prehistoric fish and reptiles. The finding supports the theory that mammalian feet evolved from ancient mammal-like reptiles that, in turn, evolved from fish.>>


Now do we get to watch the freepers heads' explode? :popcorn:

Cheers

[tocqueville]

1. some grow up to complete reptiles too

under a human appearance, thus the freepers reptilian brain

[annabanana]

2. This is a NEW study?

I seem to remember these likenesses being pointed out to me a gazillion years ago in middle school.

[ContraBass Black]

7. Well, of course it's new, because

Ok, I really can't think of any way that this isn't the same thing discovered many decades ago.

[Bjornsdotter]

10. Yes, it really is a new study

At the end of the article it is explained about a new species that was discovered a month ago. I know I was also taught about a resemblance but not a direct link.

Cheers

<<Supporting the fish/foot link was the discovery last month of a new species, Tiktaalik roseae, which lived 375 million years ago. It had fish fins and scales, but also limb parts found in four-legged animals.

"Tiktaalik blurs the boundary between fish and land-living animals both in terms of its anatomy and its way of life," said Neil Shubin, professor and chairman of organismal biology at the University of Chicago and co-author of a related paper in the journal Nature.

H. Richard Lane, director of sedimentary geology and paleobiology at the National Science Foundation, said, "These exciting discoveries are providing fossil ‘Rosetta Stones’ for a deeper understanding of this evolutionary milestone: fish to land-roaming tetrapods (four limbed animals).">>

[ladjf]

11. Yes. For years, scientists have claimed that the evolutionary

progression of species can be followed the various stages of gestation.

[PennyK]

3. What's that expression?

"Ontology recapitulates phylogeny"? The human embryo goes through stages where it resembles other creatures on the evolutionary scale...I rmember reading about this a LOOOONG time ago.

[LouisianaLiberal]

8. Actually, it ontogeny, not ontology.

If I were trying to funny, I would say ontology recapitulates philology. But of course I'm not trying to be funny.

Seriously though, this is a deadly argument against creationism.

[Recursion]

13. Well, not really

A literal "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" model was proposed in the late XIXth century but didn't pan out (though I too am intrigued by the idea of an "ontology recapitulates philology" model too... I guess that's what the Chomskyites say). The whole notion of "phylogeny" from back then has been extensively reworked anyways; we aren't "more evolved" than modern fish. Humans and modern fish are both "equally evolved".

I think the basic model now is not that an embryo passes through piscene and reptilian stages so much as our embryos are similar in proportion to the remoteness of our most recent common ancestor. So, a human embryo is rather similar to primate embryos throughout its entire development. It stops being similar to all other mammal embryos somewhat late. Before that, it stops being similar to reptile embryos. Earlier still it stops being similar to fish embryos.

[IChing]

4. To quote the bushen-fuhrer

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
—Presidential candidate George W. Bush, Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

and yes he said human
'being"
and not human
"beings'

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushism-fish.htm audio here

[rucky]

5. Science is UNGODLY!

dark-sided

[SPKrazy]

6. Actually The Whole Gestation Period Is Like The Evolutionary Process

from single to multi cellular organism

and on and on and on through development in the womb

until a baby is created.

I remember my anatomy and physiology teacher talking about this.

But I don't see it as anything that should bother a person who has beliefs in a spiritual being.

Even if they believe in the God of the bible, they can surely find the room to realize that a book written by nomadic tribesmen in the desert about God is going to be written in a way that they understand, while if it were written today it might instead talk about how in the beginning, before the big bang, all matter in the universe existed in one place, and then boom, the expansion began.

All matter was created in the beginning and we are all part of the universe in that way.

[KittyWampus]

12. In a way, recapitulating the entire evolutionary scale means all creatures

are inter-related and IMO, that's a very spiritual truth! :)

[SPKrazy]

14. IMO It Is A Very Spiritual Truth As Well! n/t

[Warpy]

9. "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"

was the phrase I learned in nursing school. This is nothing new: at one stage in fetal development we all had gills, too.

Hell, the best proof for evolution is our DNA and how much of it we share with things like bacteria and elephants.

We are all relatives. Evolution is a fact. The myth of humans as the pinnacle of evolution and somehow protected by an interested god is a destructive one, to us and our planet.

[SPKrazy]

15. I Recall That Phrase From Biology Courses As Well n/t