Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
And I'd like to see a scrap of evidence for evolution. Last time I asked for some from someone, he couldn't come up with any. All he could say was, "Well, its out there" but couldn't give a real piece of evidence. Can you give me something? Odds are, no.
Time for someone to run and hide in the corner:
Caldwell, M. W. and Lee, M. S. Y. 1997. A snake with legs from the marine Cretaceous of the Middle East. Nature 386: 705-709.
"Although snakes are descended from limbed squamates ('lizards'), all known snakes lack well developed legs and their nearest lizard relatives have yet to be identified1-4. Here we provide compelling evidence that the Cretaceous squamate Pachyrhachis problematicus, previously interpreted as a varanoid lizard5-7, is actually a primitive snake with a well developed pelvis and hindlimbs. Pachyrhachis is a sister-taxon of all other snakes. The skill exhibits most derived features of modern snakes, and the body is slender and elongated. But unlike other snakes, Pachyrhachis retains a well developed sacrum, pelvis and hindlimb (femur, tibia, fibula, tarsals). Pachyrhachis was marine, and provides additional support for mosasauroid-snake affinities."
Cronin, T. M. 1985. Speciation and stasis in marine ostracoda: climatic modulation of evolution. Science 227: 60-63.
Domning, D. P. 2001. The earliest known fully quadupedal sirenian. Nature 413: 625-627.
"Modern seacows (manatees and dugongs; Mammalia, Sirenia) are completely aquatic, with flipperlike forelimbs and no hindlimbs1, 2. Here I describe Eocene fossils from Jamaica that represent nearly the entire skeleton of a new genus and species of sirenian?the most primitive for which extensive postcranial remains are known. This animal was fully capable of locomotion on land, with four well-developed legs, a multivertebral sacrum, and a strong sacroiliac articulation that could support the weight of the body out of water as in land mammals. Aquatic adaptations show, however, that it probably spent most of its time in the water. Its intermediate form thus illustrates the evolutionary transition between terrestrial and aquatic life. Similar to contemporary primitive cetaceans3, it probably swam by spinal extension with simultaneous pelvic paddling, unlike later sirenians and cetaceans, which lost the hindlimbs and enlarged the tail to serve as the main propulsive organ. Together with fossils of later sirenians elsewhere in the world1, 4, 5, 6, 7, these new specimens document one of the most marked examples of morphological evolution in the vertebrate fossil record."
Eldredge, N. 1974. Stability, diversity, and speciation in Paleozoic epeiric seas. Journal of Paleontology 48(3): 540-548.
Lee, M. S. Y., Bell, G.L. Jr., and Caldwell, M.W. 1999. The origin of snake feeding. Nature 400: 655-659.
"Snakes are renowned for their ability to engulf extremely large prey, and their highly flexible skulls and extremely wide gape are among the most striking adaptations found in vertebrates1-5. However, the evolutionary transition from the relatively inflexible lizard skull to the highly mobile snake skull remains poorly understood, as they appear to be fundamentally different and no obvious intermediate stages have been identified4,5. Here we present evidence that mosasaurs ? large, extinct marine lizards related to snakes ? represent a crucial intermediate stage. Mosasaurs, uniquely among lizards, possessed long, snake-like palatal teeth for holding prey. Also, although they retained the rigid upper jaws typical of lizards, they possessed highly flexible lower jaws that were not only morphologically similar to those of snakes, but also functionally similar. The highly flexible lower jaw is thus inferred to have evolved before the highly flexible upper jaw ? in the macrophagous common ancestor of mosasaurs and snakes ? for accommodating large prey. The mobile upper jaw evolved later ? in snakes ? for dragging prey into the oesophagus. Snakes also have more rigid braincases than lizards, and the partially fused meso- and metakinetic joints of mosasaurs are transitional between the loose joints of lizards and the rigid joints of snakes. Thus, intermediate morphologies in snake skull evolution should perhaps be sought not in small burrowing lizards, as commonly assumed, but in large marine forms."
Malmgren, B. A., Berggren, W. A., and Lohmann, G. P. 1984. Species formation through punctuated gradualism in planktonic foraminifera. Science 225: 317-319.
"A reanalysis of the wrist bones of early human fossils provides the first good evidence that humans evolved from ancestors who 'knuckle-walked', as chimps and gorillas do today."
Shu, D.-G. Morris, S. C., Han, J., Zhang, Z.-F. and Liu, J.-N. 2004. Ancestral echinoderms from the Chengjiang deposits of China. Nature 430: 422-428.
"Deuterostomes are a remarkably diverse super-phylum, including not only the chordates (to which we belong) but groups as disparate as the echinoderms and the hemichordates. The phylogeny of deuterostomes is now achieving some degree of stability, especially on account of new molecular data, but this leaves as conjectural the appearance of extinct intermediate forms that would throw light on the sequence of evolutionary events leading to the extant groups. Such data can be supplied from the fossil record, notably those deposits with exceptional soft-part preservation. Excavations near Kunming in southwestern China have revealed a variety of remarkable early deuterostomes, including the vetulicolians and yunnanozoans. Here we describe a new group, the vetulocystids. They appear to have similarities not only to the vetulicolians but also to the homalozoans, a bizarre group of primitive echinoderms whose phylogenetic position has been highly controversial."
Also feel free to answer some specific cases:
1)What is the significance of the ancient bacterial plasma membrane being the site of lipid, secretory, soluble, integral protein, and complex carbohydrate biosynthesis, and the site of chromosomal attachment? What is the significance when compared to the endoplasmic reticulum, the site of lipid, secretory, soluble, integral protein, and complex carbohydrate biosynthesis, and the site of DNA packaging?
2)What is the rationale behind human anatomy where we have a extensor coccygis, a muscle on the posterior side of the coccyx, a muscle that when it contracted, it would raise the coccyx (rudiment of the tail)?
"The Extensor coccygis is a slender muscular fasciculus, which is not always present; it extends over the lower part of the posterior surface of the sacrum and coccyx. It arises by tendinous fibers from the last segment of the sacrum, or first piece of the coccyx, and passes downward to be inserted into the lower part of the coccyx. It is a rudiment of the Extensor muscle of the caudal vertebræ of the lower animals.
http://www.bartleby.com/107/115.html"
3)Why does our mitochondria have circular DNA, and on its membrane is the cite of ATP production? Keep in mind that bacteria have circular DNA, and ATP production is located on its plasma membrane.
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