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Eel-like creature identified as 'earliest human ancestor'
Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-5-2012 | Nick Collins

Posted on 03/06/2012 10:12:25 AM PST by Renfield

A prehistoric eel-like creature discovered in a Canadian shale bed has been identified as the earliest known ancestor of man.

Fossils dating back 505 million years preserve the relics of tiny, slithering animals which are the oldest life forms ever discovered with primitive spinal cords.

As the precursor of vertebrates the species is also believed to be the direct ancestor of all members of the chordate family, which includes fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals.

The finding means the 5cm long creatures, known as Pikaia gracilens, were the forerunners of animals as diverse as snakes, swans and humans, scientists said....

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: burgess; cambrian; godsgravesglyphs; paleontology
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To: albionin

I was being facetious.

Sorry you couldn’t pick that up.


41 posted on 03/07/2012 9:27:25 AM PST by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts

“Do you star as that guy living under a rock in the Geico commercial?”

No. I star as the engineer and business owner that is being run out of business by bad science and even poorer journalism. I star as the guy being facetious.


42 posted on 03/07/2012 9:29:52 AM PST by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: Slings and Arrows

My Flukeing bad...


43 posted on 03/07/2012 11:36:08 AM PST by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
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To: Renfield

Probably a collateral branch.


44 posted on 03/07/2012 4:11:23 PM PST by chesley (Eat what you want, and die like a man. Never trust anyone who hasn't been punched in the face)
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To: Mr. K

OK, that was totally uncalled for, and an insult to slithering creatures everywhere.


45 posted on 03/07/2012 4:15:28 PM PST by chesley (Eat what you want, and die like a man. Never trust anyone who hasn't been punched in the face)
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To: RinaseaofDs

I apologize. I really couldn’t tell because that’s just the kind of thing I hear creationists say all the time and It’s something I have to respond to. I don’t generally go onto the threads about religion and creationism but
this was a science thread and I find science intensely interesting. I have been told so many time that science is to be dismissed but faith is to be accepted without question. Well I think reason and logic are the essence of human morality and I will always jump on what I perceive to be an anti-reason statement. Again I apologize for jumping on you.


46 posted on 03/08/2012 9:57:45 AM PST by albionin
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To: Texas Fossil
The “truth” is that man did not “descend” from any animal.....

True. I was using the term 'descend' in a different way. I was referring to the fact that we are all a product of all the animal and plant life forms that have been on the Earth. Everything 'eats' something else that was an animal or plant.

Speaking of different 'ways', isn't it odd that they say man 'descended' from the apes, when they actually mean 'ascended'?

47 posted on 03/08/2012 12:13:08 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: shibumi
words fail me


48 posted on 03/08/2012 1:36:15 PM PST by SteveH (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.)
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To: albionin

Completely understand and I empathize.


49 posted on 03/08/2012 3:34:46 PM PST by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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