Newly found species fills evolutionary gap between fish and land animals

EurekAlert (AAAS) ^ | 05 April 2006 | Staff

[roaddog727]

Interesting read, but what would REALLY spark my interest, and what the article fails to mention, is how they breathed. Gills? Lungs? Somewhere in between? What?

Ah well.

BTW, nice tag line.

[null and void]

Great. All they've done is create two new gaps on either side of the previous one...

[hawkaw]

It is a scientific theory. There is a significance difference that you should understand.

[hosepipe]

[ Newly found species fills evolutionary gap between fish and land animals. ]

Actually shes the link between Buckwheat and Weezie on the Jeffersons..

[hawkaw]

Thanks for the article!

[muawiyah]

So, did it taste like chicken, or fish?

[muawiyah]

Uhhh, and then we find the occasional viral sequence in the genome of an animal up the "tree of life" from others who don't have that viral sequence.

That means genetic information can be acquired by critters independent of the "tree of life" formulation.

That doesn't make Creationism correct (obviously), but it does suggest that doctrinaire adherence to a rigid, self-contained "tree of life" mantra really isn't theologically diferent from the Creationist point of view.

Gad!

[Old Professer]

According to the numbers provided here the land mass once located almost 6,000 miles away 375 million years ago had to move at a rate of 2.2 inches per year toward the north pole; is that correct?

[bobdsmith]

Uhhh, and then we find the occasional viral sequence in the genome of an animal up the "tree of life" from others who don't have that viral sequence.

That means genetic information can be acquired by critters independent of the "tree of life" formulation.

by viruses for example

[muawiyah]

Or, by, for example, recombinant DNA technology.

[NapkinUser]

If this is even half as big a discovery as this makes it appear, why are nothing other than small fringe sites carrying it?

[Experiment 6-2-6]

which is not a mint, but a Finnish pop band.

"Fin"nish?

Doesn't that describe a critter that has fins but can walk with jointed bones on land?

[NapkinUser]

Gravity is law I think.

[muawiyah]

I wanted to add earlier, but didn't, that this is another case of SLOPPY WRITING. If the spot was on the Equator, then it was TROPICAL, not SUBTROPICAL. And, no, Brazil does not have a SUBTROPICAL climate.

[colorado tanker]

Sounds like it lived on Dagobah.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"If this is even half as big a discovery as this makes it appear, why are nothing other than small fringe sites carrying it?"

They are:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0405_060405_fish.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4879672.stm
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-04-05T170749Z_01_L05556501_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SCIENCE-FISH-DC.XML
There's this from nature.com, though without subscription you don't get the article:

News and Views
Nature.com (subscription), UK - 1 hour ago
... We raise these points because on pages 757 and 764 of this issue 1, 2 are reports of just such an intermediate: Tiktaalik roseae, a link between fishes and ...

The story is out there now.

[RightWingNilla]

Just always good to remind people that evolution is just a theory....:)

Makes you feel better, doesnt it?

[jec41]

Just remember, evolution is ONLY a theory.

Wrong: A scientific theory is of a higher order than proof or a fact. Evolution is a observed fact, the explanation of the observed fact (evolution) is the Theory of Evolution.

[spetznaz]

Yep. The various types of lungfish can breath air, and the African lungfish (aka Mudfish) can stay out of water for months and 'walk' on pectoral fins. There are also other types of air-breathing/land-'walking' fish eg the other types of lungfish, walking catfish, mudskippers, and bennies. I believe Bowfins can gulp air (although they do not 'walk' on land), and obviously there is the Northern Snakehead (which can breath air for several days, and while it doesn't use its fins for 'walking' it can wriggle from pond to pond).

All these fish are alive today, thus I'm wondering what the significance of this find is.

[Strategerist]

Well, I suspect the total motion is less than 6,000 miles as Ellesmere Island isn't RIGHT at the north pole today, and it didn't have to be RIGHT at the equator...just near it...375 million years ago. so maybe actually 5,000 miles.

But 2.2 inches a year is a typical plate motion speed; North America is moving about that fast right now. The fastest plate in the world is moving over 9 inches a year.