Showing a Bit of Backbone

yevrah writes "Palaeontologists in South Australia have found the earliest occurance of a fossil displaying primitive vertebrate. Described as something like a tadpole that probably wriggled through the bottom of the ocean this little critter is a likely missing link between invertebrates and fish."

Scientists not quite right...

[pmz]

something like a tadpole that probably wriggled through the bottom of the ocean this little critter is a likely missing link

Actually, it is an example of early spammers and a divergence from the evolutionary timeline leading up to humans.

Re:vertebrae?

[jguevin]

I guess I forgot to turn my little spelling correction into a joke so I wouldn't be modded down.

Commentator really gets it wrong

[woolie]

"You look at this blob on the ground and say, 'There goes our ancestor,' " he said. -- writes Penelope Debelle.

She ought to read Stephen Jay Gould's work before writing about science. Her statement, in fact, is very much wrong. The common supposition that there is a steady march from simple forms to more complex ones is well debunked by Gould. There is plenty of evidence that the same morphology has been developed by several species. Some survive. Others are pruned. Likewise, there is no reason to be

Re:Commentator really gets it wrong

[henrygb]

Along its back runs a stiffening rod, the critical differentiation between multicellular blobs and what ultimately became man. -- Penelope Debelle.

It is difficult to believe this is serious. Most invertebrates are more than "blobs" and many have "stiffening" even if they do not have backbones.

Re:Commentator really gets it wrong

[lookingup]

See Gould's book "Wonderful Life" for an informative and entertaining account of his theories on convergent evolution and the misconception that evolution is continually working to increase complexity. Much of what Gould presents is probably true, but not all of his evidence and theories are completely accepted. While there are plenty of examples of convergent evolution, it's reasonable to assume that certain new traits, such as the ability to use chlorophyll for photosynthesis or sexual differentiation,

Re:Commentator really gets it wrong

[penguin7of9]

"You look at this blob on the ground and say, 'There goes our ancestor,' " he said. -- writes Penelope Debelle.

She ought to read Stephen Jay Gould's work before writing about science. Her statement, in fact, is very much wrong. The common supposition that there is a steady march from simple forms to more complex ones is well debunked by Gould.

She was quoting someone else.

And what do you think is wrong with that statement anyway? We have a complex body plan and we have evolutionary ancestors. It is pe