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Inglorious beginnings: Experts trace humanity's origins to ancient worm
vancouversun.com ^ | March 5, 2012 | Jen Gerson

Posted on 03/05/2012 12:08:48 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY

CALGARY — It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced humanity's origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.

A team of researchers subjected the 505-million-year-old Burgess shale fossils of Pikaia gracilens to the latest technology and found evidence that could settle a decades-long debate about the primitive species.

Notably, that they had the seeds of a spine.

"We can see and discern the positive location of the notochord and the nerve chord. This was not obvious at all, you needed these techniques to see it," said Jean-Bernard Caron, the curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Caron is the co-author of a study to be published Monday in the British journal, Biological Reviews. The lead author was English paleontologist Simon Conway Morris.

The earliest explorers of the Burgess shale collected specimens of Pikaia in 1911. But the creature was overlooked as an ancestor of the earthworm.

"They had no idea it might be something more important to us then, at first sight," Caron said.

(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 03/05/2012 12:08:49 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
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To: Free ThinkerNY
It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced humanity's origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.

Most Democrats never evolved beyond that.

2 posted on 03/05/2012 12:12:37 PM PST by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Only a few centimetres long, Pikaia was a slender eel-like animal with a pair of small antennae-like structures at the front of its tiny head. Possession of muscle blocks and a notochord suggest that this rare fossil belongs among the chordates, the group that includes fish, frogs, and humans.
Photograph by: Courtesy , J.B.Caron/Royal Ontario Museum

Seeds of a spine? Clearly not the ancestor of modern republican congresscritters

3 posted on 03/05/2012 12:14:24 PM PST by null and void (Day 1140 of America's ObamaVacation from reality [Heroes aren't made, Frank, they're cornered...])
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To: Free ThinkerNY

“It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced humanity’s origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.”

Uh no.


4 posted on 03/05/2012 12:15:21 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Free ThinkerNY

Arrakis, here we come! Or is it Arrakis, from thence we comed?


7 posted on 03/05/2012 12:22:04 PM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: JRios1968
fluke (n) - trematode, trematode worm
Parasitic flatworms having external suckers for attaching to a host.
8 posted on 03/05/2012 12:22:15 PM PST by mikrofon (How True ;)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

CALGARY — It seems an inglorious beginning, but some scientists are now convinced Congressional Republican’s origins can be traced to an ancient, flat, fishlike worm.

A team of researchers subjected the 505-million-year-old Burgess shale fossils of Pikaia gracilens to the latest technology and found evidence that could settle a decades-long debate about the primitive species.

Notably, that they had the seeds of a spine.


9 posted on 03/05/2012 12:22:40 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
All known living things are genetically related ... and that includes bacteria.

From page 284 of Steve Jones' modern update of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and titled "Darwin's Ghost," we have ...

"One set of genes is found everywhere. It translates the information coded in the DNA and allows it to make proteins. The job is so essential that such structures changed little over millions of years."

10 posted on 03/05/2012 12:23:57 PM PST by OldNavyVet (,)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
If only we can invent a genesis that does not involve accountability to an omnipotent, omniscient, moral creator, then we can live as we like. This is why John Lennon wrote his song, "Imagine".


11 posted on 03/05/2012 12:26:20 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

I have millions of little swimming worms.


12 posted on 03/05/2012 12:26:25 PM PST by bunkerhill7 (worms swim?? Who knew?)
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To: JRios1968
Most Democrats never evolved beyond that.

I disagree....this also from the article: "Notably, that they had the seeds of a spine. "

Given that "A Spine" for any politician is a genetic anomaly, I'd think that the flatworm is a more advanced lifeform.

13 posted on 03/05/2012 12:26:30 PM PST by wbill
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To: F15Eagle
All known living things are genetically related ... and that includes bacteria.

From page 284 of Steve Jones' modern update of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and titled "Darwin's Ghost," we have ...

"One set of genes is found everywhere. It translates the information coded in the DNA and allows it to make proteins. The job is so essential that such structures changed little over millions of years."

14 posted on 03/05/2012 12:29:05 PM PST by OldNavyVet (,)
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To: wbill
Given that "A Spine" for any politician is a genetic anomaly, I'd think that the flatworm is a more advanced lifeform.

It is certainly possible that spinelessness is an advantageous trait that promotes incumbency.

15 posted on 03/05/2012 12:32:53 PM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: mikrofon

Yes, but these types of worms cannot be sluts. ;-)


16 posted on 03/05/2012 12:36:09 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: mikrofon
fluke (n) - trematode, trematode worm
Parasitic flatworms having external suckers for attaching to a host

<-- Yup!

17 posted on 03/05/2012 12:37:08 PM PST by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
There's another group of "experts" that thinks we're all descended from clams.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

18 posted on 03/05/2012 12:37:41 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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typical ‘science’ gibberish.....


19 posted on 03/05/2012 12:39:05 PM PST by raygunfan
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Evolution is only a theory.
God said He took a rib from Adam and formed Eve. Every human since then is a descendent of Eve. So, humans did not evolve from a worm or apes or anything else.


20 posted on 03/05/2012 12:56:56 PM PST by Ecliptic
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