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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/04/2007 : 07:32:42
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Here's an interesting find. quote:
Canadian fossil hunter finds missing link for horned dinos
Suzanne Ma, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, March 04, 2007 Article tools
OTTAWA - A new dinosaur species, dug up and identified by a Canadian researcher, may be the missing link between older dinosaurs with big horns and the small-horned creatures that followed.
The discovery of the new horned dino - named Albertaceratops nesmoi - is published in this month's Journal of Paleontology by Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He dug up the fossils six years in southern Alberta, while still a graduate student at the University of Calgary.
Ryan, who was born and raised in Ottawa, had spent four hot summers looking for dinosaur bones in southern Alberta when he came across part of a fossilized skull on the top of a hill.
I find the term "missing link" asinine, but have to live with it, I suppose. Really, this is not all that exciting. At best, it tells us what we already know about evolutionary progression. However, whether the YECs like it or not, it is yet another example of the myriad transitional episodes in evolutionary history, as recorded in the fossil record. I'm looking forward to reading of it in other than a news article.
Congratulations to Dr. Ryan, and if any of y'all are ever in Cleveland, the Museum of Natural History is a must-visit. It is excellent.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2007 : 14:51:19 [Permalink]
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| It's calling any fossil "the missing link" which is inappropriate in any context, because without a time machine we'll never know the specifics of evolutionary history. Was it actually that specific species of horned dinos which gave rise to the later ones, or was it an as-yet undiscovered very-closely-related species? |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2007 : 17:27:37 [Permalink]
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Yup, Dave, only the True Believers have certain and complete knowledge. Though theirs is false.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2007 : 11:54:11 [Permalink]
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This AP article from CNN starts right out with much better wording than that "missing link" crap:quote:
A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the small-horned creatures that followed, experts said.
Now, wasn't that easy? "Evolutionary middle step." Sure, it took a few more words, but it made more sense.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Yeah, but it's STILL just another, stupid dinosaur
