US scientists may have resolved 'Darwin's dilemma'

Fox News ^ | 11/15/2014 | By Matt Cantor

[SeekAndFind]

Charles Darwin worried about a possible hole in his theory of evolution, but some American scientists may just have plugged it. For about a billion years after the dawn of life on Earth, organisms didn't evolve all that much.

Then about 600 million years ago came the "Cambrian explosion." Everything changed relatively quickly, with all kinds of plants and animals emerging—which doesn't quite seem to fit with Darwin's theory of slow change, hence "Darwin's dilemma." Now, within a few days of each other, two new studies have appeared that could explain the shift, ABC News reports.

One, by scientists at Yale and the Georgia Institute of Technology, suggests that oxygen levels may have been far less plentiful in the atmosphere prior to the Cambrian explosion than experts had thought.

The air may only have been .1% oxygen, which couldn't sustain today's complex organisms, indicating a shift had to happen before the "explosion" could take place.

In a separate study, a University of Texas professor explains where that oxygen burst may have come from: a major tectonic shift. Based on geological evidence, Ian Dalziel believes what is now North America remained attached to the supercontinent Gondwanaland until the early Cambrian period, in contrast with current belief, which has the separation occurring earlier.

[Moonman62]

The air may only have been . . . . oxygen burst may have come from . . .

Yea, that’s science . . .

...

Actually, it is science. People who speak with 100% certainty are the ones that raise flags.

[Salvavida]

Plug this hole: There is NO fossil record proving Darwin’s theory, and Darwin said he would be disproven if the fossil record fails to support his theory.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Exactly. And if it’s the survival of the fittest, then how come the apes didn’t die out after man came on the scene? After all, that is what supposedly happened to all the missing links between apes and men.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Good fix.

[RoosterRedux]

Isn’t there is a fixed amount of oxygen in the world...some free, some bound up in other compounds? Are these scientist saying breathable oxygen was bound up and needed to be released (as in the way trees consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen)?

[Wilhelm Tell]

Yeah, I guess I will have to drive my fossil fueled car to the grocery store to buy some popcorn.

I am waiting for remarks like, “Tectonic plates aren’t in the Bible!” or the alternate theory that says the continents all moved to where they are during the 40 days of the Flood. Or, “Were you there to measure the oxygen level?”

[ClearCase_guy]

Science is math and measurement and testable theories. Michael Faraday was doing science. Maxwell was doing science. It wasn't just pie-in-the-sky "here's a cool theory" stuff.

600 million years ago, oxygen may have burst forth.

Please describe the testing which is planned in order to verify this guess.

[Olog-hai]

Not real science, of course. And the Bible talks about this kind of dissembling:

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: / Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. …

— 1 Timothy 6:20-21

The Greek word here used for “science” is gnosis (also translated knowledge, but cognate with Latin scientia whereas Greek episteme properly translates as “art”).

[RayChuang88]

I believe that there was another supercontinent before Pangaea that had most of its land mass in the Southern Hemisphere. That was the time when Earth was mostly encrusted in an ice cover that was over a mile deep, which explains where there was very little evolution of life. It was the combination of the formation of Pangaea and the formation of oceans changing ocean current patterns that started to warm up the planet, which resulted in an explosion of life on the planet.

[Olog-hai]

Everything surrounding this “theory” is filled with such indefinite phrases.

[Grampa Dave]

Some US Science Fiction writers are Grubering Americans about Darwin and Gorebull warming.

[raygunfan]

you got that right.

[bubbacluck]

I would like to move to Gondwanaland. Sounds like a cool place.

[Moonman62]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observational_science

[catnipman]

Darwin’s REAL dilemma is that he said for his theory to be correct that hundreds of millions of transitional fossils would have to be found along each major “tree-of-life” showing the gradual “evolutionary” changes occurring.

Of course nothing like that has ever been found. And of course nothing like that has every been found or every will be because of the issue of irreducible complexity. Oh and because of the fact that life obviously “evolved” by intelligent design and not by an impossible string of random accidents driven by a ridiculously powerful negative entropy in a universe that otherwise just slowly disintegrates at almost every level like a toy top wobbles and falls after it’s set spinning on the floor

[JimSEA]

The Cambrian Explosion marked the emergence of hard skeletons, particularly exoskeletons, that fossilize easily. It also follows an extinction event among soft bodied organisms so there were lots of niches to fill in the environment. Add the increase in oxygen and the fact that the "explosion" took 30 million + years and you have a fare less unusual event. Does the Cambrian Explosion challenge the Theory of Evolution.

[Olog-hai]

Based on geological evidence, Ian Dalziel believes what is now North America remained attached to the supercontinent Gondwanaland until the early Cambrian period, in contrast with current belief, which has the separation occurring earlier. …

Interesting. There is another account, and it has mankind around when the continents separated.

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

— Genesis 10:25

The name Peleg comes from Hebrew palag, which means to split apart; the name itself means “earthquake”.

[Moonman62]

It’s a shame how negative stereotypes of Conservatives can be confirmed by the majority of the content on this thread.

[Olog-hai]

Science is about testing and observation; pure speculation comes from without and is the domain of just about everything else. Saying “based on the evidence” and coming up with wild statements is not using one’s “evidence” as the basis.

[MUDDOG]

A lot of oxygen is bound up in water.

The cyanobacteria give off oxygen from water as part of their photosynthesis.

(I think.)