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 ...
Most Democrats never evolved beyond that.
Seeds of a spine? Clearly not the ancestor of modern republican congresscritters
“It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced humanity’s origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.”
Uh no.
Arrakis, here we come! Or is it Arrakis, from thence we comed?
CALGARY — It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced Congressional Republican’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.
From page 284 of Steve Jones' modern update of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and titled "Darwin's Ghost," we have ...
"One set of genes is found everywhere. It translates the information coded in the DNA and allows it to make proteins. The job is so essential that such structures changed little over millions of years."
I have millions of little swimming worms.
I disagree....this also from the article: "Notably, that they had the seeds of a spine. "
Given that "A Spine" for any politician is a genetic anomaly, I'd think that the flatworm is a more advanced lifeform.
From page 284 of Steve Jones' modern update of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and titled "Darwin's Ghost," we have ...
"One set of genes is found everywhere. It translates the information coded in the DNA and allows it to make proteins. The job is so essential that such structures changed little over millions of years."
It is certainly possible that spinelessness is an advantageous trait that promotes incumbency.
Yes, but these types of worms cannot be sluts. ;-)
<-- Yup!
Snap! Snap! Snap!
typical ‘science’ gibberish.....
Evolution is only a theory.
God said He took a rib from Adam and formed Eve. Every human since then is a descendent of Eve. So, humans did not evolve from a worm or apes or anything else.
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.