EVOLUTION: Knowledge of the past continues to grow,

... expanding man's understanding of the world. That this will continue is taken for granted. Wonderful! I love it. Truth is so important I am willing to modify my positions at a moment's notice. (But not my faith; in fact this inspires my faith ... go figure!)

However, this "continued growth" in knowledge kind of flies in the face of the somewhat arrogant, absolutist certainty of the practitioners of naturalistic theories.

The discovery of a furry, beaver-like animal that lived at the time of dinosaurs has overturned more than a century of scientific thinking about Jurassic mammals.

The find shows that the ecological role of mammals in the time of dinosaurs was far greater than previously thought, said Zhe-Xi Luo, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

We've heard a lot about the upsetting of "scientific thinking" recently. I assume this is sci-speak for "theories."

The animal is the earliest swimming mammal to have been found and was the most primitive mammal to be preserved with fur, which is important to helping keep a constant body temperature, Luo said in a telephone interview.

For over a century, the stereotype of mammals [sci-speak for "theory" of mammals?] living in that era has been of tiny, shrew-like creatures scurrying about in the underbrush trying to avoid the giant creatures that dominated the planet, Luo commented.

This is so they don't have to deal with complications presented with their transition to homeo sapiens.

Now, a research team that included Luo has found that 164 million years ago, the newly discovered mammal with a flat, scaly tail like a beaver, vertebra like an otter and teeth like a seal was swimming in lakes and eating fish.

Is this a big deal?

Matthew Carrano, curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, called the find "a big deal."

An important factor is how specialized [sci-speak for "developed"; something that doesn't fit the template] the creature was, said Carrano, who was not part of the research group.

"It gives a hint that early mammals were not just these shadowy creatures at the time of dinosaurs" but were having their own evolution. There have been hints of such animals in the past but nothing equal to the remains found by Luo and colleagues, he said. [this seems to saying, "We didn't know what was going on so we didn't talk about it because it didn't fit our scientific thinking"]

There are other impact points in the knowledge base.

Thomas Martin of the Research Institute Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany, said the discovery pushes back the mammal conquest of the waters by more than 100 million years.

"This exciting fossil is a further jigsaw puzzle piece in a series of recent discoveries," commented Martin, who was not part of Luo's team.

It's the first evidence that some ancient mammals were semi-aquatic, indicating a greater diversification than previously thought, the researchers said. [I believe this is just another way of saying, "We were guessing up till this. Now our guessing is better."]

If the Darwinists and Naturalists weren't so darn absolutist about their theoretic science, and admit to its deficiencies, I'd be more willing to hear them out. You have to admit that this has been a good decade so far for revisions to their body of knowledge (and ours).

Quotation emphasis is the CRIB's.


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TAGS: Creation, Darwinism, Evolution, Jurassic Period,
Naturalism, Science, Religion