Every year, Access Research Network publishes a list of the 10 most significant science news stories for the year, for the intelligent design community – in consultation with theorists and writers. For 2011, here’s #6:
The largest fossilized spider was discovered recently in China providing new evidence for stasis (a period of little or no evolutionary change in a species). The newly reported fossil golden orb-weaver spider is a giant female with a leg span of about 15 cm. Until this new fossil turned up in Inner Mongolia, the most ancient example from this grouping, or genus, was about 35 million years old. This discovery pushes the existence of the Nephila genus back to the Jurassic Period (165 ma), making them the longest ranging spider genus known. Today, these same insects adorn tropical rainforests, with giant females of Nephila maculate (legs spanning up to 20 cm), and small males (just a few centimeters across). The incredible detail of this fossil specimen, including the fine hair on the legs, help classify the find a “living fossil” showing very little evolutionary change over 135 million years.
Significant Darwinian evolution is forever happening somewhere else, just out of reach.
See also:
#1 of 2011 for ID community: 50th Peer-Reviewed Pro-ID Scientific Paper Published.
#2 of 2011 for ID community: The Design of the Butterfly Continues to Inspire and Amaze.
#3 of 2011 for ID community: Woodpecker Drumming Inspires Shock-Absorbing System.
#4 of 2011 for ID community: “Stylus” Computer Program Aims to Bridge Gap Between Real World and Artificial Evolutionary Simulation.
#5 of 2011 for ID community: Explosive Radiation of Flowering Plants Confirmed
#7 of 2011 for ID community: Complexity in the Universe Appears Earlier Than Thought.
#8 of 2011 for ID community: An Identity Crisis for Human Ancestors.
#9 of 2011 for ID community: DNA Repair Mechanisms Reveal a Contradiction in Evolutionary Theory.
#10 of 2011 for ID community: Limits to self-organization of life identified
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