Fossils Bridge Gap in African Mammal Evolution

Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | Wed Dec 3, 2003 | Patricia Reaney

[Pharmboy]

LONDON (Reuters) - Fossils discovered in Ethiopia's highlands are a missing piece in the puzzle of how African mammals evolved, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday.

Little is known about what happened to mammals between 24 million to 32 million years ago, when Africa and Arabia were still joined together in a single continent.

But the remains of ancestors of modern-day elephants and other animals, unearthed by the team of U.S. and Ethiopian scientists 27 million years on, provide some answers.

"We show that some of these very primitive forms continue to live through the missing years, and then during that period as well, some new forms evolved -- these would be the ancestors of modern elephants," said Dr John Kappelman, who headed the team.

The find included several types of proboscideans, distant relatives of elephants, and fossils from the arsinoithere, a rhinoceros-like creature that had two huge bony horns on its snout and was about 7 feet high at the shoulder.

"It continues to amaze me that we don't have more from this interval of time. We are talking about an enormous continent," said Kappelman, who is based at the University of Texas at Austin.

Scientists had thought arsinoithere had disappeared much earlier but the discovery showed it managed to survive through the missing years. The fossils from the new species found in Ethiopia are the largest, and at 27 million years old, the youngest discovered so far.

"If this animal was still alive today it would be the central attraction at the zoo," Tab Rasmussen, a paleontologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri who worked on the project, said in a statement.

Many of the major fossil finds in Ethiopia are from the Rift Valley. But Kappelman and colleagues in the United States and at Ethiopia's National Science Foundation (news - web sites) and Addis Ababa University concentrated on a different area in the northwestern part of the country.

Using high-resolution satellite images to scour a remote area where others had not looked before, his team found the remains in sedimentary rocks about 6,600 feet above sea level.

[Markofhumanfeet]

LOL. I'm glad the circus is back in town. I like clowns

[Markofhumanfeet]

now there's a case for evolution, and all too apparent with the evo contingent, fetal alcohol syndrome (they'll have to search that one on the net too, as they never heard of it, even though their mamas drank gin all the time she was preggers with them).

[Markofhumanfeet]

Christians will stand up and speak out for the Lord and for his sweet sweet word. We are not afraid. That's it

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your reply!

One would certainly intepret non-engulfment that way, if one were disposed to find learning in amoebae. The control would be to see if the amoebae were able to engulf other kinds of particles, and therefore had made a specific change in their behavior with respect to the ink particles, and hadn't just been damaged in such a way that inhibited phagocytosis.

Indeed. I would like to see the experiment repeated with the control you mentioned to remove any hint of bias.

[Prodigal Son]

So what do you hope to accomplish?

[js1138]

The important question at the moment is whether we are as smart as that amoeba, and refuse to touch the indigestible lump a second time.

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOL! I certainly hope so!

[Right Wing Professor]

To be brief, suffice it to say that Popp eventually conjectured that the mechanism of cancer in biological systems proceeded from cancer’s ability to neutralize the “photo-repair mechanism” at the cellular level of the cancer-invaded organism. In other words, there are photons capable of work in the organic body, and cancer interferes with and finally overcomes their ability to effect necessary cellular repairs. Popp conducted many successful experiments tending to confirm this active photon-as-maintainer-of-living-systems hypothesis. But still, the results were not dispositive. Fast-forward to the relevant passage

A particularly gifted student [of Popp’s] talked him into trying an experiment. It is well known that when you apply a chemical called ethidium bromide to samples of DNA, the chemical squeezes itself into the middle of the base pairs of the double helix and causes it to unwind. The student suggested that, after applying the chemical, he and Popp try measuring the light coming off the sample. Popp discovered that the more he increased the concentration of the chemical, the more the DNA unwound, but also stronger the intensity of light.

OK, first of all, let me say I've done research with ethidium and other intercalation agents bound to DNA, some of which has been published in Science. It is a system I'm familiar with. And I'm a spectroscopist, teach mol. spec., at the advanced level, have a Ph.D. in biophysics, etc. Take that argument from authority for what it's worth.

McTaggert's description made no sense, so I looked up some of Popp's papers. He has essentially invented the field of 'biophotons'. There are conferences on it, and a lot of third world research on it, but it has the odor of crank research. I hadn't heard of it before this exchange. Popp has patented all sorts of applications in searching for tumor detection, infection, etc. Seen any of these devices in a hospital?

I searched the NIH grant database for 'biophoton', and found nothing. I think they're simply looking at a mixture of delayed luminescence and experimental artifacts. I may be an American chauvinist, but in my experience if it's a legitimate area of biophysical research, it would be funded by NIH. If there were any truth to his theory of carcinogenesis, someone over here would take it up, and steal the credit. Europeans complain about this all the time :-). Seriously, we understand a great deal about cancer, and it's not a result of impaired biophotons. Let me quote a phrase from one of the abstracts

One of the main difficulties in interpreting numerous biological effects of ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) produced by the living specimen is associated with its extremely low average intensity, which do not often significantly exceeds the level of a background count and is sometimes even lower

It's way down in the background, and you have to look really hard to see it. Riiiight.

Do me a favor, and look up the history of N-rays. Here's one source . The difference nowadays is that crank research (unless it would have earthshaking consequences, like 'cold fusion' or 'polywater') is simply ignored. There's no percentage in proving stuff like this wrong. But there's an enormous amount of utter crap published in scientific journals, and those of us in the field learn to look for tell-tale signs, and avoid it.

[js1138]

...do not often significantly exceeds the level of a background count and is sometimes even lower ...

LOL

[Right Wing Professor]

Let me just add that the phenomena of radiative decay and radiationless decay are physical processes that are well understood, and for which there are quantitative theories. Long lived 'photon-storage' by organic molecules is simply impossible. The photochemistry of the DNA bases has been studied to death, as has the electronic structure. Excited states that don't have dipole-allowed transitions (such as triplets) and are therefore long lived (milliseconds - seconds) also react and damage the DNA. That's why UV radiation causes cancer.

[Right Wing Professor]

One more reply to myself; there is a phenomenon called chemiluminescence, which occurs because certain chemical reactions produce molecules in excited states, which then emit light to go into the ground state. That's how fireflies flash. A lot of tissues undergoing oxidative damage produce hydroxyl radicals, peroxides and superoxides, which react with proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, which then chemiluminesce at low levels. My guess is these 'biophotons' are chemiluminescence. Microsomes in particular chemiluminesce, since these are the organelles that do a lot of the oxidative detoxification in the cells.

[Elsie]

AMEN!

Acts 7:56-58
56. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57. At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58. dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

[Right Wing Professor]

But some quite well known people are also interested in Popp's work. I hate to engage in guilt by association, but...

[Elsie]

Hebrews 2:11
   Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

 

Works for me!!

---

 

 

2 Timothy 1:7-10
 7.  For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
 8.  So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
 9.  who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
 10.  but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

 

 

Romans 1:16
   I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

 

Hallelujah!!

 

 

 

2 Corinthians 10:13
   We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.

 

 

Philippians 1:20-21
 20.  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
 21.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

 

[Doctor Stochastic]

Guilt by Association? ¡Qué RICO!

[js1138]

That's a real spoonful.

[js1138]

Site seems to be a bit bent out of shape today.

[Right Wing Professor]

It's a great site, with really kewl Uri Geller merchandise. You can buy a Uri Geller parascience pack , so you too can become a shyster, er, I mean, paranormal celebrity. And the picture of Uri with Al Gore and the Rooskies, beaming mind waves at them so they'll sign START II, is something that should get wide circulation should the Tennessee Robot ever run for office again.

[Right Wing Professor]

I knew you were going to say that.

[PatrickHenry]

It's because of sceptics like you that I refuse to publish the astonishing results of my perpetual motion research.