Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Kevin Dorner · 03-21-2002, 05:37 PM

OK, Scigirl's Newsflash I ain't, but while the never-ending arguments go down in here, there's a worldful of discovery taking place out there...

From CNN: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/03/21/single.ancestor.ap/index.html" target="_blank">Fossil skull fuels debate over human origin</a>

Quote:

"A million-year-old skull found in Ethiopia confirms the theory that modern man evolved from a single pre-human species that developed in Africa and migrated throughout much of the world, scientists say."

From the Chicago Tribune: <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0203210245mar21.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed" target="_blank">Dino mite grew into mighty Triceratops</a>

Quote:

"Two fossils of a puny, horny-faced, seven-pound, four-legged creature found recently in China are turning out to be early ancestors of Triceratops, the 10-ton, tanklike vegetarian with three mighty horns."

From the BBC: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1885000/1885384.stm" target="_blank">Ancient penguins yield evolution clue</a>

Quote:

"Valuable clues to the pace of evolution have been found in the bones of long-dead penguins recovered from the Antarctic. DNA samples from these bones, one almost 8,000 years old, have given researchers in New Zealand a better idea of the speed of the "molecular clock" scientists use to investigate the evolutionary history of animals.

Just when it looked as though there was nothing left but rehashes of the same old tired arguments... new things to argue about! Er... better if it's "new things to learn."

[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: Kevin Dorner ]</p>

Coragyps · 03-21-2002, 05:59 PM

I was just about to start a new thread, but this will serve the purpose just as well. Not exactly evolution, but another gap closing up in the old creationist "god of the gaps:" this one in the tired old "magnetic field decay" so popular among some young-earth enthusiasts. Li, et al., in Science, v 295, pp 1887-1890, (2002) (the March 8 issue) have an article, abstract below:

Quote:

Using long-duration, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation, we found that the magnetic dipole field generated by a dynamo action in a rotating spherical shell repeatedly reverses its polarity at irregular intervals (that is, punctuated reversal). Although the total convection energy and magnetic energy alternate between a high-energy state and a low-energy state, the dipole polarity can reverse only at high-energy states where the north-south symmetry of the convection pattern is broken and the columnar vortex structure becomes vulnerable. Another attractive finding is that the quadrupole mode grows, exceeding the dipole mode before the reversal; this may help to explain how Earth's magnetic field reverses.

What this appears to say is that a rotating sphere with a conductive core that's fluid enough to show convection currents will, just naturally and without divine intervention, flip its magnetic field at irregular intervals. Hmmm. Just like our old Earth. One more creationist argument that AiG will have to soon tell its flock not to use?

Answerer · 03-22-2002, 03:27 AM

Wow, this is a perfect timing for this sort of discoveries, there will be no doubt that christians and muslims will continue to be skeptic about it while in the meantime, they could do nothing about it. I recalled once my friend criticize the scientists for treating giant animals as dinosaurs and apes as humans. Now I think he will choke and shock at this discoveries.

Oolon Colluphid · 03-22-2002, 03:43 AM

Ref the new Homo erectus find, here�s the Nature abstract:

Quote:

Nature 416, 317 - 320 (2002)

Remains of Homo erectus from Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

The genesis, evolution and fate of Homo erectus have been explored palaeontologically since the taxon's recognition in the late nineteenth century. Current debate is focused on whether early representatives from Kenya and Georgia should be classified as a separate ancestral species ('H. ergaster'), and whether H. erectus was an exclusively Asian species lineage that went extinct. Lack of resolution of these issues has obscured the place of H. erectus in human evolution. A hominid calvaria and postcranial remains recently recovered from the Dakanihylo Member of the Bouri Formation, Middle Awash, Ethiopia, bear directly on these issues. These 1.0-million-year (Myr)-old Pleistocene sediments contain abundant early Acheulean stone tools and a diverse vertebrate fauna that indicates a predominantly savannah environment. Here we report that the 'Daka' calvaria's metric and morphological attributes centre it firmly within H. erectus. Daka's resemblance to Asian counterparts indicates that the early African and Eurasian fossil hominids represent demes of a widespread palaeospecies. Daka's anatomical intermediacy between earlier and later African fossils provides evidence of evolutionary change. Its temporal and geographic position indicates that African H. erectus was the ancestor of Homo sapiens.

And there�s also a new early ceratopsian dinosaur (the group including things like Triceratops):

Quote:

Nature 416, 314 - 317 (2002)

A ceratopsian dinosaur from China and the early evolution of Ceratopsia

Ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs) represent one of the last and the most diverse radiations of non-avian dinosaurs. Although recent systematic work unanimously supports a basal division of Ceratopsia into parrot-like psittacosaurids and frilled neoceratopsians, the early evolution of the group remains poorly understood, mainly owing to its incomplete early fossil record. Here we describe a primitive ceratopsian from China. Cladistic analysis posits this new species as the most basal neoceratopsian. This new taxon demonstrates that some neoceratopsian characters evolved in a more incremental fashion than previously known and also implies mosaic evolution of characters early in ceratopsian history.

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03-22-2002, 03:27 AM	#3
Answerer Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 3,956	Wow, this is a perfect timing for this sort of discoveries, there will be no doubt that christians and muslims will continue to be skeptic about it while in the meantime, they could do nothing about it. I recalled once my friend criticize the scientists for treating giant animals as dinosaurs and apes as humans. Now I think he will choke and shock at this discoveries.

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