[fidelis]

"If this is true, the shark will have lived through Galileo's discovery that the Earth orbits the Sun, and the founding of the United States."

Actually, Galileo did not "discover" that the Earth orbits the Sun-- other scientists before his time (including Copernicus) had hypothesized the same thing. Galileo's problem (as well as that of the earlier thinkers) was that, even though he was right, the theory he offered did not convince the scientists of his time (including those in the Church). His proposal assumed the planets orbited the sun in a circle, which they don't, and that the ocean tides were proof of the rotation of the earth, which it isn't. It wasn't until latter scientists discoveries of the elliptical orbits of planets and star parallax that the model would work.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

His proposal assumed the planets orbited the sun in a circle, which they don't, and that the ocean tides were proof of the rotation of the earth, which it isn't.

The rise and fall of tides isn’t due to the rotation of the earth (and the gravitational pull of the moon and sun)?

[tumblindice]

Of course none of that was possible until Isaac Newton invented gravity.