Posted on 07/30/2007 2:01:00 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Geologists have found the remains of a huge underground rainforest hidden in a coal mine in Illinois. The fossil forest, buried by an earthquake 300 million years ago, contains giant versions of several plant types alive today.
...
Also surprising is the presence of remains from mangrove-like plants. "It was always assumed that mangrove plants had evolved fairly recently," says Falcon-Lang.
(Excerpt) Read more at bioedonline.org ...
Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.
What did everything evolve from?
What was the first ‘thing’ and how did it come to be?
Evolutions little beginning problem!
First thing and things there after had to be created, there is no other possible explanation.
Evolutions little beginning problem!
Evolution deals with changes in the genome AFTER whatever occurred as an origin.
How many times do we have to repeat this?
Or is it a case of:
Evolutionist is a term used by creationists to include all scientists who disagree with them.
Wow that is a whole lot of grey area that you just stated.
The ancient forest bears little resemblance to modern equivalents. "The diversity of the first rainforests was bizarre," says Falcon-Lang. He and his team found the remains of tree-sized clubmosses, horsetails and ferns plants that today grow 2 or 3 metres tall, but in the ancient forest reached heights of up to 40 metres. Also surprising is the presence of remains from mangrove-like plants. "It was always assumed that mangrove plants had evolved fairly recently," says Falcon-Lang.Interesting stuff, but there's not one single bit of this article that is anything about any major, or even minor, problem for "Darwinism" - just the opposite, in fact, it gives more information for biologists and paleontologists to study even more details about evolution.
The forest probably had about 50 different plant species, although Falcon-Lang says that this is a conservative estimate. We probably lumped several similar species together as one," he explains. Modern rainforests are more diverse, containing as many as 500 plant species per hectare.
Imminent collapse
This discovery also shows that the fundamental processes that guide the complexity and evolution of forests has been around for hundreds of millions of years, says Scott Hocknull, a curator at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia. "Knowing this and how it has played out so many times in history will allow ecologists to better understand the complexity of modern forest systems," he adds.
"Evolution is as much faith-based as creationism. And the worshipers at the altar of evolution get quite bent out of shape when this is pointed out to them."Oh, geeze, "worshipers" at the "altar" of heliocentrism would also get "quite bent out of shape" if a scientifically illiterate person came along and pretended that the idea that the Earth orbits the Sun was "faith-based" rather than depending on discoveries made in astronomical science.
No, it is just correcting the strawman version of evolution that we see so often on these threads.
What is evolution? It is mutation and natural selection acting on hundreds (thousands) of traits at the same time. Given that, why should evolution proceed in any fixed direction for long? Most mutations are benign, some are beneficial and some are deleterious. Overall, most are benign.
Given this, changes in environmental conditions will "select" for those favorable traits and "select" against those deleterious traits. The climate gets colder? Then a narrow nasal form, shorter, squat body shape, and larger body are good adaptations.
Your tribe migrates to warmer climates, then dark skin, more linear body form, and broad nasal form are better adapted.
Try checking out a few books on human races. There is a lot of fascinating information about our species and how different groups have adapted!
But wait! There's more!
Those adaptations, modified by natural selection, can add up over time. That is where speciation comes in!
Which is, BTW, Darwin specifically avoided the question of the beginnings of life, and dealt only with existing life dividing into various species.
He only documented what he had seen in years of field study, and the conclusion he drew from studying living creatures and their remains.
OK, set out your evidence that macro evolution is a proven fact. No theories, just hard evidence. Show all links in the chain.
Did you bother to follow the link in post #1?
Without using a whole lot of grey matter. Very very grey indeed. :)
Lol, that looks great and you did something neat with his hands! Good for you.
“If God as creator is truth....”
I have no problem with that definition at all. But what does that have to do with genetic change within a population (otherwise known as Evolution)?
Evolution and God are not mutually exclusive.
What was the first thing and how did it come to be?
Evolutions little beginning problem!
Evolution deals with changes in the genome AFTER whatever occurred as an origin.
How many times do we have to repeat this?
Or is it a case of:
Evolutionist is a term used by creationists to include all scientists who disagree with them.
Really good answer......except you did not and cannot answer the question. For something to evolve it had to have come from something before it evolved. What was the first thing? How did it come into existence? I have a scientific answer, it was created. You have no answer. Don’t talk to us about evolution if you cannot give an intelligent foundation for the start of it.
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.