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Ancient bird is missing link to Archaeopteryx (rational caucus)
The New Scientist ^ | 02 May 2008 | Jeff Hecht

Posted on 05/06/2008 5:27:49 PM PDT by Soliton

A spectacularly preserved new Chinese fossil reveals a previously unseen stage in the early evolution of flight.

Called Eoconfuciusornis, it is a missing link between the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx, and more advanced birds that have been discovered in the Yixian geological formation in China.

The Yixian deposits have yielded remarkably diverse fauna that have revolutionised avian palaeontology, but they are limited to a period from 125 to 120 million years ago – too narrow a time span to show much evidence of evolution within bird lineages

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: flap; fraud; globalwarming; godsgravesglyphs; piltdownman; quack
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1 posted on 05/06/2008 5:27:49 PM PDT by Soliton
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To: Soliton
Cool.

But, I wonder how long it will take for the usual suspects to call it a fraud.

2 posted on 05/06/2008 5:38:03 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: Coyoteman

Every new discovery creates TWO missing links, one on either side of it.


3 posted on 05/06/2008 5:40:00 PM PDT by null and void (My brain is a sieve, and Aratosthenes is nowhere to be found. ~ Stolen from Darksheare...)
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To: Soliton

Looks like a duck...

4 posted on 05/06/2008 5:42:21 PM PDT by null and void (My brain is a sieve, and Aratosthenes is nowhere to be found. ~ Stolen from Darksheare...)
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To: Coyoteman

All the others have been PROVEN to be frauds. Why should this be any different?


5 posted on 05/06/2008 5:46:04 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: blam

Ping. Ping Pong.


6 posted on 05/06/2008 5:46:30 PM PDT by Domestic Church (AMDG...)
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To: null and void

That has been run over several times and laid out to dry.


7 posted on 05/06/2008 5:47:00 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Coyoteman
But, I wonder how long it will take for the usual suspects to call it a fraud.

I know. "A big scary demon under ground created this stone statue that looks like a bird just to contradict St. Ben of the Stein".

8 posted on 05/06/2008 5:49:14 PM PDT by Soliton
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To: Blood of Tyrants
All the others have been PROVEN to be frauds. Why should this be any different?

Name two that have been proved to be frauds.

9 posted on 05/06/2008 5:49:17 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/chinese/Pressed_Duck.html


10 posted on 05/06/2008 5:50:57 PM PDT by null and void (My brain is a sieve, and Aratosthenes is nowhere to be found. ~ Stolen from Darksheare...)
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To: Soliton
they are limited to a period from 125 to 120 million years ago – too narrow a time span to show much evidence of evolution within bird lineages

How much time do you need? How much do you have?

They're saying that 5 million years is too narrow to show much evidence of evolution within bird lineages -- uh, how much time do they postulate for hominid evolution? Less than 5 million I think. How's that work?

11 posted on 05/06/2008 6:12:47 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Et si omnes ego non)
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To: Coyoteman

The Chinese have perpetrated several genuine frauds in the recent past, especially regarding early birds. I hope other scientists are looking very closely at this.


12 posted on 05/06/2008 6:23:25 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: Blood of Tyrants
All the others have been PROVEN to be frauds. Why should this be any different?

I think you're just engaged in wishful thinking. Perhaps you have links that support your statement.

13 posted on 05/06/2008 6:26:35 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: ClearCase_guy

Adaptation is driven by changing environments.

A few hundred thousand years of rapid frequent climate change - ice ages, thaws, warm inter-glacials and more ice ages - drives rapid adaptation (or extinction for critters that can’t adapt fast enough).

Five million years of a relatively steady warm wet climate doesn’t put much additional evolutionary pressure on critters that successfully adapted in the first few tens of millennia.

The differences in adaptation rates are exactly what the underlying theory would predict.


14 posted on 05/06/2008 6:29:02 PM PDT by null and void (My brain is a sieve, and Aratosthenes is nowhere to be found. ~ Stolen from Darksheare...)
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To: Soliton

This is great fossil of a line of birds which had long feathers on their legs as well.

A documentary on PBS’s NOVA showed how these long leg feathers helped the bird fly versus today’s birds which do not have these features at all.


15 posted on 05/06/2008 6:30:18 PM PDT by JustDoItAlways
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To: Soliton

What is the “rational caucus”?


16 posted on 05/06/2008 6:37:03 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG ping


17 posted on 05/06/2008 6:38:22 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
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To: JustDoItAlways

I’m not seeing any leg feathers in the fossil. Two wings, and two streamer feathers in the tail. The upper leg is cocked up over the upper wing and doesn’t seem to have any sizeable feathers of its own.


18 posted on 05/06/2008 6:41:08 PM PDT by heartwood
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To: arthurus
The Chinese have perpetrated several genuine frauds in the recent past, especially regarding early birds. I hope other scientists are looking very closely at this.

Name two Chinese frauds.

19 posted on 05/06/2008 6:45:58 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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To: LiteKeeper

I threw it in there. There is a Catholic caucus where criticism is prohibited


20 posted on 05/06/2008 6:47:18 PM PDT by Soliton
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