Last week Nature Magazine had a story announcing the most recent fossil find, this one linking sea dwelling animals with land animals. The fossils are dated to about 375 million years ago and are apparently in remarkable condition. You can read about the discovery here. Also see this story which shows how the evolution of fins to feet could have occured.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
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4 comments:
Hi John,
I have no dog in this fight -- my pedestrian view is that evolution is a good theory of how things work, and ID, is a provocative hypothesis, but hasn't been able to develop good tests yet to falsify itself.
The article you cite, entitled, "How did fins involve into feet?" kinda, sorta bugs me.
Shouldn't it be, "Did fins involve into feet?" -- without the "How"
I just don't like it when folks presuppose what they are trying to demonstrate.
I'll refrain from offering certain analogies that pertain to our favorite topic:)
Hank Barnes
I don't know, Hank. I think I'm going to have to write something about how we approach our acceptance of science. Not in a complete and undisputable sense, but in a practical sense of "does it work" or "does it not"? I think we have to have some pragmatic feel about things that are presented by the scientific community. You know me well enough from these discussions to know that I'm not into blind acceptance. On the other hand, I'm also not into questioning every major offering that comes from the scientific community, nor in finding a monetary/political conspiracy behind everything.
To simply address your question, I think it's pretty obvious that the appendages of early animals evolved off into a number of pragmatic body parts for animals to best survive the environments they were in. Occam's razor.
To simply address your question, I think it's pretty obvious that the appendages of early animals evolved off into a number of pragmatic body parts for animals to best survive the environments they were in. Occam's razor.
Well, I tend to agree. It does seem obvious. But obvious stuff can also deceive -- that's why we test it.
Buy, I do think evolution has passed most of the key tests, unlike ID.
Uh, are you aware that the object of your praise has been leaving comments over at Barnes-ville?
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