Posted on 03/05/2012 12:08:48 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
CALGARY — It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced humanity's origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.
A team of researchers subjected the 505-million-year-old Burgess shale fossils of Pikaia gracilens to the latest technology and found evidence that could settle a decades-long debate about the primitive species.
Notably, that they had the seeds of a spine.
"We can see and discern the positive location of the notochord and the nerve chord. This was not obvious at all, you needed these techniques to see it," said Jean-Bernard Caron, the curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Caron is the co-author of a study to be published Monday in the British journal, Biological Reviews. The lead author was English paleontologist Simon Conway Morris.
The earliest explorers of the Burgess shale collected specimens of Pikaia in 1911. But the creature was overlooked as an ancestor of the earthworm.
"They had no idea it might be something more important to us then, at first sight," Caron said.
(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...
The best scientists I’ve run across are all Christian believers who recognize Scripture gives them an edge and a blessing as to where to look next and what searches are foolhardy. They are still rigorous academics, mathematicians, and educators, well skilled in rationalism, empiricism, and faith through Christ.
The most ignorant scientists I’ve met are those who ignore spiritual truth. (I never could understand how anybody who ignores Scripture could ever be trusted in research.)
Very insightful and thought provoking comment.
The Killer Angels by Michael Sheera
At Gettysburg before the charge:
“…While ago we sat around a fire, talked on Darwin. Evolution. You read about it?”
“Ah?”
“Charles Darwin. Theory of Evolution.”
“Can’t say that I have. There are so many things rattling about.”
“Theory that claims that men are descended from apes.”
“Oh that. Oh yes. Well I’ve heard—distastefully—of that.”
“Well. We were talking on that. Finally agreed that Darwin was probably right. Then one fella said, with great dignity he said, Well, maybe you are come from an ape and maybe I am come from, an ape, but General Lee, he didn’t come from an ape.’ “
I believe every word that is in God's word, the Bible. I believe in one Creator who is God the Father, God the Son (Who is my Lord Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. I believe that the Lord God worked miracles and continues to work them... and I believe that the Creation account in Genesis is nothing less than absolute truth.
This is my testimony and I stand by it, regardless of the names I may be called by people who do not know me. And what is also true is that I don't think that any human fully understands the whole Truth of the creation story, apart from my Lord Jesus.
I think that the way in which God did it is exactly according to the Genesis account, from God's point of view... an act that created an Earth millions of years old. I don't make God out to be a liar, and I don't think He made the earth to fool us, and I will not be party to any lie from the pit of Hell.
People argue over this like they were there and saw it happen. Not a one of us knows the truth of it like my Lord does, and being astonished at His act of Creation is one of the joys I look forward to in Heaven.
Bottom line? I don't claim to know things I don't know... and I don't think any of us is as smart as we'd like to think.
The Earth doesn’t appear millions of years old; it looks almost new. Landslides happen every day, and hills deep with clay soil are everywhere. If the Earth were just 10,000 years old, that would not be so.
A geologist that I work with often, mapping slides, says that the California coastal mountains cannot possibly stand another 1000 years.
I think DR Humphreys has it right in his Starlight and Time.
Inglorious beginnings: Experts trace humanity's origins to ancient worm
I'm NOT complaining about a duplicate thread, just adding a cross reference...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.