Thursday, April 06, 2006

Evolutionary Geek Moment


I'm putting on my evolution nerd hat for a minute. Paleontologists have discovered a so-called "missing link" in the transition from fish to land tetrapods. Past finds have hinted and teased that the lobe finned fishies eventually adapted their fins to legs and began crawling out of Devonian era rivers. Well, Tiktaalik roseae is a transitional wet dream.


Finding the skull, neck and limbs were the key. The skull and neck show far greater flexibility than a fish yet the limbs are obviously "fins". However these fins have what can only be described as precursors to digits found in tetrapods. The thing has fingers just not completely built out yet!

So the next time some rabid creationist starts babbling about there being no transitionals, just throw this bad boy in their face.

Read a complete description of the find and methodology at Pharyngula.

h/t: Panda's Thumb

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

xraI can't believe you fell for that old trick, Griftdrift! It's common knowledge that the earth is only six thousand years old. All so-called "fossils" are, in reality, the creations of our jealous, vengeful God who placed them there to test our faith in Him. The sooner you accept that the better, unless you're prepared to wallow in the eternal torment of H-E double hockey sticks while we true believers are basking in the Heavenly bliss of our eternal reward.

griftdrift said...

He sure put a lot of those deceitful fossils down in the rocks. We just seem to keep finding more and more!

I forget. Which day did God create the fossils and call them good? I'm guessing day 6.

Blackjackk said...

It was day 8, the same day he created Cinemax After Dark movies

Anonymous said...

Well, every jealous, wrathful deity needs a hobby.

Sara said...

This reminds me, what'd you think of the preacher on the Sopranos talking about how dinosaurs must've coexisted with man and carbon dating is wrong? It made me think of you and your love of verbally bitchslapping creationists.

griftdrift said...

It was straight out of Kent Hovind. If you've never heard of that goofball, do yourself a favor and google. He really believed the Flintstones was the truth.

The best thing about guys like the one on the Sopranos is the minute they open their mouth everyone knows they are an idiot. Even thick headed mobsters that probably never cracked a biology book.

Blackjackk said...

Plus he had those creepy eyebrows too. Always a dead giveaway.

Sara said...

They definitely gave him high creep factor. I'm guessing we'll be finding him molesting 8 year old girls in a future episode, or somesuch.

I liked how the other guy was wearing a Terri Schiavo vigil T-shirt as well. Just to add another controversial issue to the pile.

I've definitely heard of Kent Hovind before but I will look him up again. My memory is fuzzy at best.

griftdrift said...

The geek post gets the most comments ever! Shocking!

Anonymous said...

No, the "4th Georgia What Next" post got more, although if you reply to this it will then be a tie.