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New Record-Setting Living Fossil Flabbergasts Scientists
Creation-Evolution Headlines ^ | 12/5/2003 | Creation-Evolution Headlines

Posted on 12/05/2003 3:26:16 PM PST by bondserv

New Record-Setting Living Fossil Flabbergasts Scientists   12/05/2003
A remarkably-detailed fossil ostracode, a type of crustacean, has been announced in the Dec. 5 issue of Science1 that is blowing the socks off its discoverers.  Erik Stokstad in a review of the discovery in the same issue2 explains its significance in the evolutionary picture of prehistory:

Over the past half-billion years [sic], evolution has dished up [sic] an almost endless variety of novelties: lungs, legs, eyes, wings, scales, feathers, fur.  So when paleontologists find a creature that doesn’t change, they take note.   (Emphasis added in all quotes.)
Two things about this fossil are exceptional.  (1) It has a “jaw-dropping” amount of detail, such that even small fragile parts and soft tissues were perfectly preserved.  (2) It is indistinguishable from modern ostracodes:
What’s most amazing, ostracode experts say, is how eerily similar the soft-tissue anatomy is to that of modern relatives.  “I was flabbergasted,” says Koen Martens, a zoologist at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
This fossil, found near Herefordshire, U.K., was found in Silurian deposits estimated to be 425 million years old.  That means that its modern counterparts are living fossils, virtually unchanged for all that time:
Some ostracode specialists are stunned.  “This is a demonstration of unbelievable stability,” says Tom Cronin of the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia.  Whereas ostracodes diversified [sic] into some 33,000 living and extinct species, “these guys have just been plodding along totally unfazed.
This fossil, named Colymbosathon, is also upsetting those who look for evolution in the genes:
Finding a modern cylindroleberid in the Silurian clashes with molecular data, which suggest that the group and related families originated relatively recently, says evolutionary biologist Todd Oakley of the University of California, Santa Barbara.  There’s no conflict for zoologist Anne Cohen, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, who thinks Colymbosathon actually belongs to a long-extinct family.  In any case, the new fossil indicates that a basic ostracode body plan was already present in the Silurian.  It could also help [sic] sort out evolutionary relationships of fossil ostracodes.
David Horne (Queen Mary College, London) predicts more “long-lost evolutionary blueprints” [sic] may emerge from these deposits.  “The probability that they will find similarly preserved representatives of other ostracode lineages, and of other arthropods, is both high and extremely exciting.”
1Siveter et al., “An Ostracode Crustacean with Soft Parts from the Lower Silurian,” Science Dec. 5, 2003.
2Erik Stokstad, “Invertebrate Paleontology: Gutsy Fossil Sets Record for Staying the Course,” Science Volume 302, Number 5651, Issue of 5 Dec 2003, p. 1645.
This is just one more of many remarkable, astounding, flabbergasting examples of living fossils.  “Unbelievable stability” is not a prediction of Darwinism.  The Darwinian world is supposed to be a fluid world, filled with diversification, radiation, and innovation.  During the imaginary 425 million years, the continents moved all over the world, animals crawled onto the land and became geckos and crocodiles and birds and caribou.  Mountains rose and valleys sank, and glaciers repeatedly advanced and retreated over much of the planet.  Some animals moved back into the oceans and became whales, porpoises, manatees and sea lions in just a small fraction of this much time, and humans emerged from grunting chimpanzees, invented language and abstract thought, and conquered space.  Is it reasonable to assume that in this slow whirlwind of continuous dynamical change, these ostracodes just reproduced themselves over and over millions of times without any change whatsoever?
    Darwinists are caught in a crossfire of antagonistic evidence.  Only a well-armored Darwinist could be excited about incoming bombshells like this.  Only by wearing Kevlar-lined lead helmets around their brains can they keep the bullets from penetrating and the insides from exploding.


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: colymbosathon; crustacean; godsgravesglyphs; ostracode; silurian
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1 posted on 12/05/2003 3:26:16 PM PST by bondserv
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To: bondserv; blam; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; abner; Alas Babylon!; Andyman; annyokie; bd476; ...
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

2 posted on 12/05/2003 3:27:10 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: Elsie; AndrewC; jennyp; lockeliberty; RadioAstronomer; LiteKeeper; Fester Chugabrew; ...
Pinging the Drs. of discussion!!
3 posted on 12/05/2003 3:27:14 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: bondserv
Interesting focus - thanks!
4 posted on 12/05/2003 3:27:44 PM PST by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: bondserv
Why did'nt it evolve alot more?

Is not EVERYTHING evloving?
5 posted on 12/05/2003 3:28:39 PM PST by Kay Soze (Liberal Homosexuals kill more people than Global Warming, SUVs’, Firearms & Terrorism combined.)
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To: farmfriend
Please add me to the list. Thanks.
6 posted on 12/05/2003 3:29:52 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: Kay Soze
Is not EVERYTHING evloving?

Only the Theory of Evolution is continually evolving.

7 posted on 12/05/2003 3:33:20 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: bondserv
Consider yourself added. If you ever change your mind, or I get you on the wrong list, just let me know.
8 posted on 12/05/2003 3:33:36 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: bondserv
Oh, this thread has nothing to do with Helen Thomas.
9 posted on 12/05/2003 3:33:36 PM PST by Mark (Treason doth never prosper, for if it prosper, NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON.)
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To: farmfriend
10:4

John 10:4 that is. :-)

4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
10 posted on 12/05/2003 3:35:29 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: bondserv
I was an agricultural lobbyist. Isaiah 55:10,11 fits well don't you think?
11 posted on 12/05/2003 3:37:47 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: Mark
Oh, this thread has nothing to do with Helen Thomas. HeHe!

Good one.

If she repents and believes before they bury her, she's "in like Flynn." Otherwise she's going to be an uncomfortable fossil.

12 posted on 12/05/2003 3:38:27 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: bondserv
What’s most amazing, ostracode experts say, is how eerily similar the soft-tissue anatomy is to that of modern relatives.

Actually, I heard it has a big old d!ck.

13 posted on 12/05/2003 3:40:30 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Kay Soze
Why did'nt it evolve alot more? Is not EVERYTHING evloving?

Yes, but evolution doesn't work that way. New creatures evolve, but the old creatures are still there, maybe extinct.

14 posted on 12/05/2003 3:40:37 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
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To: farmfriend
I was an agricultural lobbyist. Isaiah 55:10,11 fits well don't you think?

Let's pull that up.

Isa 55:10-11
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The Bible is the finest example of good Authorship we have. Tee it up, it fits.

15 posted on 12/05/2003 3:41:33 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: bondserv
Posted here without all the luddite spin.
16 posted on 12/05/2003 3:42:51 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: bondserv
What I think is even more pathetic is this apparent conclusion that a single or even a few instances of critters which go against Darwin's theory of Natural Selection invalidate it in it's entirety. It is still a "theory" is it not? There are millions of species of critters are there not? I suppose you may think all psychology is bunk too cause only god can know what is truly going on inside our head. I know darwin's theory isn't perfect. Doesn't mean there isn't truth to it. Creationists appear to taken the entire realm of life, existance, evolution, etc and put up a wall claiming it to be their territory alone. I personally seek the truth. Not some idea based on faith in a book. The second you attribute any single characteristic to your god, you've cheated. Who can "know" god? And those who claim to. Prove it. :)

Why isn't the theory of natural selection considered another one of gods creations?
17 posted on 12/05/2003 3:43:02 PM PST by Orblivion
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To: VadeRetro
"Big Time" Dick Cheney doesn't like being called an old fossil.
18 posted on 12/05/2003 3:43:30 PM PST by bondserv (Alignment is critical.)
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To: Kay Soze
Why did'nt it evolve alot more?

Is not EVERYTHING evloving?

That is a good question, and one molecular biology can probably soon answer. This critter should go to the top of the list of species to have their genetic code sequenced. It is possible that 425 million years ago it evolved a repair mechanism to limit genetic mutation.

And that is something we might very well want to splice into our own DNA some day

So9

19 posted on 12/05/2003 3:44:21 PM PST by Servant of the 9 (Screwing the Inscrutable: or is that Scruting the Inscrewable?)
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To: farmfriend
Would you add me to your list too please? :)
20 posted on 12/05/2003 3:45:28 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops.... http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/)
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