Ancient fossils fill gap in early human evolution

Yahoo ^ | 4/12/06 | Patricia Reaney

[Sofa King]

LONDON (Reuters) - An international team of scientists have discovered 4.1 million year old fossils in eastern Ethiopia that fill a missing gap in human evolution. ADVERTISEMENT

The teeth and bones belong to a primitive species of Australopithecus known as Au. anamensis, an ape-man creature that walked on two legs.

[js1138]

This is causing me some mental pain. On one hand I worry that we have been set up by a creationist trying to see if we were dumb enough to fall for an April 1st article on dino DNA. On the other hand, they are soooooo eager to believe that the dino fossil is young and has fresh meat.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

Thanks for the link. You posted it before, and it was rebutted. It says that no DNA was found. Did you even READ it before posting it? :)

"Of course, the big question is whether it will be possible to see dinosaur DNA. "We don't know yet. We are doing a lot in the lab now that looks promising," Schweitzer said."

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"This is causing me some mental pain."

No need. The creo was fooled and posted that link thinking she had a *gotcha!!*. Notice the lame retreat. She was had. :)

I noticed it instantly just by seeing South Carolina State University in the article, when I know it was North Carolina State University that Mary Higby Schweitzer is from. I remembered it because I'm an NCSU alumni. :)

Of course, the silly frog cloning part didn't help it's credibility either...

[mlc9852]

Are you saying there will be no frogosaur in the near future? I am totally bummed!

[mlc9852]

UTAH SCIENTIST SAYS HE HAS EXTRACTED DNA FROM DINOSAUR BONES
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
N.Y. Times

After two years of painstaking analysis and hundreds of unsuccessful attempts, a
scientist at Brigham Young University has extracted the genetic material DNA
from what he thinks are bone fragments of 80-million-year-old dinosaurs.

The surprise was that the recovered DNA bore little or no resemblance to that of
any modern animals. It is "like nothing we've ever seen before," said Dr. Scott
R. Woodward, an associate professor of microbiology at the university in Provo,
Utah, who directed the study.

Other scientists, however, are skeptical of the research and want to see the
results tested further by independent laboratories.

http://dml.cmnh.org/1994Nov/msg00285.html

[mlc9852]

In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton's best-selling novel and the new motion picture, scientists bring to life a menagerie of dinosaurs. They clone the behemoths by retrieving dinosaur DNA from fossilized insects that fed on the dinosaurs' blood.

Farfetched? The concept of sequencing portions of dinosaur DNA could soon become a reality, according to George O. Poinar, a paleontologist at the University of California at Berkeley whose research inspired Crichton's plot. "We've got a project underway to extract dinosaur DNA from insects preserved in amber samples," he reports. Cloning the long-extinct giants, however, isn't possible yet. Still, he doesn't rule out the possibility that the technology for cloning could become available sometime in the future.


http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1430/is_n9_v15/ai_13768756

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Are you saying there will be no frogosaur in the near future? I am totally bummed!"

No, I'm saying in you were taken in by an April fools article and are making a most ungracious retreat from it.

"UTAH SCIENTIST SAYS HE HAS EXTRACTED DNA FROM DINOSAUR BONES..."

Great. A twelve year old study that went nowhere; it came out shortly after the Jurassic Park craze too.

Next!

"Resurrecting the dinosaur - DNA research"

Even better, a 13 year old article that came out when Jurassic Park did.

Look, you made a statement about a RECENT dino DNA find, posted an article that said that NO DNA was found, then posted another that was an April fools joke except you didn't catch on.

You're embarrassing yourself.

[mlc9852]

How am I embarrassing myself? I didn't write the articles nor did I say anything other than I have read articles on here about dinosaur DNA. Seems to me scientists are embarrassing themselves telling people they have found dino DNA. Scientists don't lie!!!! And they are never wrong, either!!! How dare you question scientists! Who do you think you are???

[Dimensio]

I found it odd that such a find in 1994 never received any followup information, so I did a bit of searching. Apparently additional review revealed the mDNA to be from human contamination.

[Dimensio]

You will note that the article that you cite states plainly that no DNA has actually been found thus far.

[Dimensio]

Seems to me scientists are embarrassing themselves telling people they have found dino DNA.

Thus far you have located exactly one scientist who has suggested such a thing, and he was proven wrong rather quickly.

Scientists don't lie!!!! And they are never wrong, either!!! How dare you question scientists! Who do you think you are???

No one here has suggested that scientists do not lie, nor has anyone suggested that they are never wrong.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"How am I embarrassing myself?"

You made a claim, posted a link to an article you said backed your claim, when in fact it refuted it. Then you got trapped by a silly April fool's article. Now you're trying to get out of it with jokes.

" Seems to me scientists are embarrassing themselves telling people they have found dino DNA."

?? You were the one saying they did. The 1994 article said they MAY have found dino DNA. YOU claimed that a RECENT dino find DID find DNA, when the article said quite clearly that no such thing happened.

"Scientists don't lie!!!! And they are never wrong, either!!! How dare you question scientists! Who do you think you are???"

Off the meds? YOU were the one who was wrong, and you aren't big enough to admit it.

As I said, very embarrassing.

[js1138]

Scientists don't lie!!!! And they are never wrong, either!!!

Of couse they do, but in science, lies and errors are eventually detected and dismissed. That is what makes the methodology of science different from other means of acquiring knowledge.

[js1138]

The really sad thing is that you, a professed believer in the Bible, are not personally honest enough to admit you made a mistake.

It is interesting that the supposedly amoral, atheistic science community finds and corrects its mistakes as quickly as possible. That sometimes means waiting for new evidence, but there is no hesitation once the evidence is clear.

[Elsie]

We know that A) is a modern chimpanzee and N) is a modern human.

So you are trying to say that modern humans desended from modern chimpanzees??

---

Everyone agrees that M) was a modern human as well.

Well then - since EVERYONE agrees; who am I not to?

[mlc9852]

http://www.unmuseum.org/dnadino.htm

Another article - what will it take to make you believe that it is possible to find dinosaur DNA? Don't you have any faith at all???

There are quite a few articles out there if you will just look. Whether or not you believe them doesn't really matter.

[mlc9852]

Abstract:
DNA was extracted from 70-80 million year old dinosaur egg excavated from Cretaceous belt formation in Xixia Henan, China. The DNA samples from both outer shell and inner floccule contents were used as templates in polymerase chain reactions (PCR) with a specific primer and hexamers. With these two primers a 150 bp DNA fragment has been amplified, cloned and sequenced. Deduced amino acid sequence of this dinosaur DNA has been compared with known protein sequences in EMBL Bank. The results showed that it has significant homology with Xenopus laevis epithelia precuraor- EP-cadherin (40.6%) and brain-cadherin (37.5%), bovine placental cadherin (34.4%) and human placental cadherin (36.4%), respectively.

http://www.pku.edu.cn/academic/xb/95/95-2-3.html

More info for you

[Dimensio]

It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern whether or not you are serious when you post links to satirical sources in support of your claim.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Another article - what will it take to make you believe that it is possible to find dinosaur DNA?"

Give it up. I never said it wasn't possible. I said that it hadn't happened, certainly there were no RECENT claims. YOU said it did, that it happened recently, and that you had a link. You provided a link, which actually said that NO DNA was found. Then you posted a link to a fake April fools article, which tricked you. Now you are flailing around like a stuck pig.

Very embarrassing. :)

For you.

BTW, that Chinese find had a followup:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8950849&dopt=Abstract

[mlc9852]

Sorry CG, but I am not in the least bit embarrassed. As I said, I didn't write the articles or make the claims. Scientists did. You can argue with them. But if it makes you feel better to try to embarrass me, have at it. And since it appears there are only a couple of us left on this thread, I feel my reputation will survive. But I certainly appreciate your heartfelt concern for me.

Happy Easter! (That's a Christian holiday so if you don't celebrate it, my apologies. Wouldn't want to offend anyone).