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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
 Posted - 07/11/2007 : 13:11:56
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Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough
The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.
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"Such a unique skin condition protects all the internal organs from modern microbes and micro-organisms ... In terms of its future genetic, molecular and microbiological studies, this is just an unprecedented specimen." |
Very cool discovery!
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by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
 Posted - 07/11/2007 : 13:27:49 [Permalink]
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Wow, it appears remarkably well preserved.
Creationists citing this as evidence of a young Earth in 3, 2, 1...
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 15:07:49 [Permalink]
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Oh, let me make an evolutionary prediction:
The DNA of mammoths will be more similar to elephants than to any other living organism. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 16:09:48 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hawks
Oh, let me make an evolutionary prediction:
The DNA of mammoths will be more similar to elephants than to any other living organism.
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Prediction? Evolutionary science makes predictions? Don't tell Dembski and the IDiots. They'd just be jealous.
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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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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 16:38:50 [Permalink]
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The Siberian plan I read about a couple years ago wants to find some intact sperm(most likely to survive freezing), and try to cross a mammoth with some current elephant species. After they get several, they would cross them with each other to try and create a mammoth-like animal capable of sustaining a population.
An ambitious project, to say the least.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 16:57:24 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hawks
Oh, let me make an evolutionary prediction:
The DNA of mammoths will be more similar to elephants than to any other living organism.
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Yeah, but closer to African or Asian elephants? 
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 17:16:55 [Permalink]
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| Yeah, but closer to African or Asian elephants? |
That data should be available out there.
Not like this is the first ever frozen mammoth found. I'm confident in predicting that some basic genetic analysis of mammoth DNA has been done in the past.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 17:18:17 [Permalink]
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And I was right!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1220_051220_mammoth.html
| The extinct beasts are more closely related to Asian elephants than to African elephants |
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 18:11:08 [Permalink]
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And from an ID perspective, I predict that the thick furry coat of the mammoths will have some kind of function. Designers typically design things to have a function, after all. Not that this follows logically from ID in any way shape or form, I just predict it anyway.
(--- The first two sentences are examples of not atypical IDist reasoning. Sorry for hijacking the thread) |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 19:46:03 [Permalink]
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And this was fascinating, from your link:Hofreiter says that this close timing may have an interesting parallel among primates, which include humans.
"It's interesting that gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans also split by two speciation events within a very short time," he explained |
It's all very clear to me. (The fact that I'm taking some wonderfully strong pain meds for the ingrown toenail operation I had today is beside the point.)
I envision the ancestors of chimpanzees domesticating the African elephant for use as a mount for their war on the baboons. Homo erectus meanwhile rode the mammoth's ancestors into Asia, perhaps chasing the Orangutans on their mastodons. (Gorillas, with their fear of heights, refused to ride pachyderms at all, preferring zebras.) Imagine the cavalry battles! Science like this gives us much better stories than religious mythology.
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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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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 21:17:25 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
It's all very clear to me. (The fact that I'm taking some wonderfully strong pain meds for the ingrown toenail operation I had today is beside the point.)
I envision the ancestors of chimpanzees domesticating the African elephant for use as a mount for their war on the baboons. Homo erectus meanwhile rode the mammoth's ancestors into Asia, perhaps chasing the Orangutans on their mastodons. (Gorillas, with their fear of heights, refused to ride pachyderms at all, preferring zebras.) Imagine the cavalry battles! Science like this gives us much better stories than religious mythology. |
Have you been taking too many meds AND watched too much Lord of the Rings? |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2007 : 21:51:49 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hawks
Originally posted by HalfMooner
It's all very clear to me. (The fact that I'm taking some wonderfully strong pain meds for the ingrown toenail operation I had today is beside the point.)
I envision the ancestors of chimpanzees domesticating the African elephant for use as a mount for their war on the baboons. Homo erectus meanwhile rode the mammoth's ancestors into Asia, perhaps chasing the Orangutans on their mastodons. (Gorillas, with their fear of heights, refused to ride pachyderms at all, preferring zebras.) Imagine the cavalry battles! Science like this gives us much better stories than religious mythology. |
Have you been taking too many meds AND watched too much Lord of the Rings?
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That's as may be. But my vision is vivid. Prove me wrong!
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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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JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED
2418 Posts |
 Posted - 07/11/2007 : 22:35:02 [Permalink]
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Was this beast quick frozen?
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What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2007 : 06:02:48 [Permalink]
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| Was this beast quick frozen? |
Great question. I beleive it was between medium and quick medium frozen, as expressed on the international freezing rate scale.
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2007 : 06:12:32 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by furshur
| Was this beast quick frozen? |
Great question. I beleive it was between medium and quick medium frozen, as expressed on the international freezing rate scale.
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Even more importantly, it was long-frozen.
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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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Ain't it cute?
