A real advantage is that promising “biomarkers” may be found in fossils that are too fragmentary to make it into the display collection. If so, expect to hear expressions like “unexpected,” “remarkable,” “earlier than thought” and “more complex than expected” quite frequently.
Tag: fossils
New Ediacaran fossils, 570-560 mya, make the picture clearer
Uppsala University: The immense variability of microfossils has convinced the researchers that the complexity of life in that period must have been greater than has hitherto been known.
Science News’s Top fossils in 2019 show a diminishing Darwin
From 518 million years ago: The remains document the Cambrian explosion, a rapid flourishing of life-forms, and include many organisms never seen before — even at the most famous Cambrian fossil site, Canada’s Burgess Shale Carolyn Gramling, “Science News’ favorite fossils of 2019” at Science News So even more fossils just popped into existence, just Read More…
Early fossils may just be “chemical gardens”
Researcher: Findings suggest that structure alone is not sufficient to confirm whether or not microscopic life-like formations are fossils. More research will be needed to say exactly how they were formed…
Megacarnivore found in drawer
The cat came back. so to speak. Actually, extinct Simbakubwa kutokaafrika was not a cat but a hyaenodont, larger than a polar bear, with three rows of shearing teeth. Found between 1978 and 1981, the jawbone had to be stored on special shelving due to its size.
Would 3-D virtual fossils speed up research?
And would everyone think that was a good thing? They’re here but not as popular as you might think. Many paleontologists fear losing control of the story: One of the characteristics of information is that, unlike matter and energy, it is not reduced by being shared. And when it is shared, it can generate new Read More…
Thousands of Cambrian fossils discovered in China, new to science
These animal groups lived in the ocean over half a billion years ago but were buried by a subterranean mudflow: Paleontologists found thousands of fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui river in Hubei province in southern China, where primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, algae, anemones, worms and arthropods with thin whip-like feelers Read More…
Paleontologist Gunter Bechly live tonight on what the fossil record really tells us about common ancestry
Jonathan McLatchie announces a live interactive webinar today, Saturday, at 8pm British time, featuring pro-ID paleontologist Dr. Gunter Bechly, who will be exploring the implications of the fossil record for common ancestry. (Time zones.) Gunter Bechly is a distinguished paleontologist, specializing in fossil dragonflies, exquisitely preserved in amber for tens of millions of years. After Read More…
Those most ancient Greenland “fossils” are not really life, new team says
Getting it right is important for the search for life on Mars: Found in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks in Greenland, the mounds strongly resemble cone-shaped microbial mats called stromatolites, researchers reported in 2016. But a new analysis of the shape, internal layers and chemistry of the structures suggests that the mounds weren’t shaped by microbes but by Read More…
Oldest evidence for animals found at 635 mya
Instead of looking for fossil at that age, the researchers looked for biomarkers: Rather than searching for conventional body fossils, the researchers have been tracking molecular signs of animal life, called biomarkers, as far back as 660-635 million years ago during the Neoproterozoic Era. In ancient rocks and oils from Oman, Siberia, and India, they found a Read More…
Fossil Discontinuities: A Refutation of Darwinism and Confirmation of Intelligent Design
Vid with Gunter Bechly The fossil record is dominated by abrupt appearances of new body plans and new groups of organisms. This conflicts with the gradualistic prediction of Darwinian Evolution. Here 18 explosive origins in the history of life are described, demonstrating that the famous Cambrian Explosion is far from being the exception to the Read More…
Cambrian Explosion Caught on Film
Illustra’s new film “Darwin’s Dilemma” delivers a knockout punch to Darwinism on Sept. 15. Darwin has tried to dodge the Cambrian explosion for 150 years; how can he survive this?