Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Missing Link Found (why is it smiling?)

University of Chicago

Scientists have found a Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals.
Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.

A model of the 375 million-year-old fish, which exhibits changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals.
In two reports today in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Neil H. Shubin of the University of Chicago say they have uncovered several well-preserved skeletons of the fossil fish in sediments of former streambeds in the Canadian Arctic, 600 miles from the North Pole.

The skeletons have the fins, scales and other attributes of a giant fish, four to nine feet long. But on closer examination, the scientists found telling anatomical traits of a transitional creature, a fish that is still a fish but has changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals — and is thus a predecessor of amphibians, reptiles and dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans.

Paging all fundie wackadoos!! Please pick up the reality phone!

And don't give me that nonsense about how jesus put the fossil there to "test your faith."

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