Science Frontiers
The Unusual & Unexplained

Strange Science * Bizarre Biophysics * Anomalous astronomy
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About Science Frontiers

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms. Over 2000 Science Frontiers digests have been published since 1976.

These 2,000+ digests represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Sourcebook Project, which publishes Science Frontiers, also publishes the Catalog of Anomalies, which delves far more deeply into anomalistics and now extends to sixteen volumes, and covers dozens of disciplines.

Over 14,000 volumes of science journals, including all issues of Nature and Science have been examined for reports on anomalies. In this context, the newsletter Science Frontiers is the appetizer and the Catalog of Anomalies is the main course.


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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The fossil record and the quantization of life!A recent article on the possible quantization of galaxies was placed immediately before an interview with S. Stanley, one of the proponents of punctuated evolution. Either fate or the mysterious forces of seriality seemed to be saying that it is now time to broach the subject of the quantization of life itself. The reader can blame Stanley only for the stimulus and his discussions of speciation and the discontinuous (quantized?) fossil record. (Campbell, Neil A.; "Resetting the Evolutionary Timetable," BioScience, 36:722, 1986.) Comments. When we suggest quantization in biology, ... phenomena come to the fore: 1. The obvious splitting of life into well-defined states -- the species -- as defined morphologically and/or by the genetic code; and 2. The gaps in the fossil record, which imply a frequent lack of transitional forms from one species to another. As Stanley asserts repeatedly in his interview, the fossil record is actually quite good in many places, despite the long-voiced claims of the gradualists that transitional forms do not exist merely because of the deplorable state of the fossil record. In physics the analogous phenomena would be: (1 ) The chemical elements and their isotopes (or an atom's energy levels); and (2 ) The lack of transitional forms. Straining the analogy still further, the evolution of ...
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... Than Flying Birds? BBC6 Did Australian Songbirds Evolve Earlier than European Songbirds? BBC7 Are Birds More Closely Related to Mammals Than to Reptiles? BBC8 The Inability of Some Birds to Synthesize Ascorbic Acid BBD DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN SPACE AND TIME BBD1 Discontinuous Populations of Birds BBD2 Uncolonized Areas: Unfilled Niches BBD3 Land Birds Observed Far at Sea BBD4 Late Survival of Moas and Passenger Pigeons BBD5 Distribution Curiosities BBE THE FOSSIL RECORD OF BIRDS BBE1 The Fossil Record of Birds and Associated Paradigms BBE2 Evidence against the Dinosaur Origin of Birds BBE3 Protoavis: A Pre-Archaeopteryx Bird? BBE4 Unresolved Nature of Archaeopteryx BBE5 The Apparent Absence of Transitional Forms of Feathers BBE6 Fossils of Ostrich Ancestors in the Northern Hemisphere BBE7 Controversial Feathers of the London Archaeopteryx Fossil BBE8 Giant Fossil Eggs BBF BODILY FUNCTIONS BBF1 The Avian Respiratory System: Unique ... Complex, Sophisticated BBF2 Avian Bodily Functions: Some Oddities BBG GENETICS BBG1 Species mtDNA More Diverse Than Morphology BBG2 Discordance in the Date of Divergence of Modern Birds BBG3 Discordances between Phylogenies Established from Morphology and DNA Analysis BBG4 Dearth of Introns in Birds BBI INTERNAL STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS BBI1 Avian Magnetoreceptors: Hard to Find BBI2 Curious Internal Structures BBO ORGANS BBO1 Complexity and Sophistication of Some Owl Ear-Brain, Sound-Localization Systems BBO2 Regeneration of Brain Neurons BBO3 Curiosities of Avian Brains BBO4 The Pecten: A Unique Structure in the Avian Eye BBO5 Curiosities of Avian Eyes BBO6 High Complexity and Sophistication of the Avian Eye BBO7 Remarkable Tongue Adaptations BBO8 The Loss and Reduction of Reproductive Organs BBT UNUSUAL TALENTS AND FACULTIES BBT1 Infrasound and Atmospheric Pressure-Change Detection BBT2 Utility of Ultraviolet Vision in Birds BBT3 Echolocation: Parallel Evolution ...
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... EQD2 Channels and Zones EQD3 Structural Anomalies of the Inner Core EQD4 Anomalies Associated with Mantle Convection Cells EQQ ANOMALOUS SEISMIC SIGNALS EQQ1 Deep-Focus Earthquakes ES STRATIGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ESA EMBEDDED ACCRETION STRUCTURES ESA1 Cylindrical Structures in Rock and Unconsolidated Sediments ESA2 Spherical Aggregates ESA3 Concretions ESA4 Small Fused Structures ESA5 Geodes ESA6 Orbicules ESB ANOMALOUS BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESB1 Biological Extinction Events ESB2 Biological Explosion Events ESB3 Recent Vegetation and Shallow Water Fossils at Great Depths ESB4 Long-Buried, Undecomposed Organic Matter ESB5 Living and Fossil Marine Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in ... Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 Rocks and Sediments of Controverted Origins ESC10 Unusual Growth Structures ESC11 Possible Extraterrestrial Origin of Ocean Water ESC12 Chemical Anomalies of Lakes and Ground Water ESC13 Petroleum Anomalies ESC14 Coal Anomalies ESC15 Outgassing of Radon-222 ESC16 Methane Anomalies ESD DEPOSITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE ESD1 Bone Caves, Bone Caches,... ESD2 Bone Beds, Fish Beds,... ESD3 Sedimentary Deposits of Exceptional Volume ESD4 Historical Evidence for Large Scale Flooding ESD5 Recent Large Reductions of Polar Ice Cover ESD6 Giant ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How real are biological extinctions in the fossil record?Much has been made by catastrophists of the apparent wholesale extinctions of many forms of life from one geological period to another. Some uniformitarians have been arguing all along that these so-called extinctions are more apparent than real. The present study supports this view with its study of world-wide records of the Triassic-Jurassic transition period. Correlation of U.S . and South African rocks imply that this key geological interface was actually a period of gradual faunal replacement rather than sudden, simultaneous extinction of live forms. (Olsen, Paul E., and Galton, Peter M.; " ... -Jurassic Tetrapod Extinctions: Are They Real?" Science, 197:983, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The failure of two-dimensional life The fossil record tells us that just prior to the Cambrian explosion of life, the earth was populated by a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied, shallow-water marine invertebrates, some with dimensions as large as 1 meter. This whole group of animals did not survive into Cambrian times, thus ending what has been termed The Ediacaran Experiment. Some paleontologists have tried to find similarities between the Ediacaran and Cambrian life forms to preserve the continuity of life. This has proved difficult, and some scientists now feel that The Edicaran approach to "largeness" was to increase surface area externally. The Ediacarans were ... shaped like pancakes, tapes, fans, etc. This enabled them to present large areas to the environment for respiration, feeding, and other biological functions. In contrast, many present life forms achieve "largeness" by increasing internal areas, as in the lungs, folded intestines, etc., along with the forced circulation of air, blood, and other sub stances. This latter approach survived, while the two-dimensional Ediacaran Experiment did not. The demise or extintcion of the Ediacarans led Gould, the author of this far-ranging article, to the influence of extinctions on life in general -- a hot topic these days. Gould stated that with natural selection operating, one would expect continual "improvement" in life forms, but that this had not happened. " ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did darwin get it all right?Believe it or not, the above title appeared in Science rather than the Creation Research Society Quarterly. (We never thought we'd see the day!) And right beneath, in large type, is: "The most thorough study yet of species formation in the fossil record confirms that new species appear with a most un-Darwinian abruptness after long periods of stability." In the article that follows, R.A . Kerr reviews several recent studies of fossil bryozoans and snails. Some of these painstaking dissections of the fossil record were carried out by scientists initially committed to Darwinian gradualism. Even these researchers have been forced to acknowledge that much biological evolution proceeds ... in minute steps but by large jumps or saltations. Such abrupt speciation is tough enough to explain, but even more daunting are those species untouched by change over millions, even hundreds of millions of years. Indeed, the major characteristic of the fossil record and, therefore, earth life as a whole, has been stasis rather than speciation, despite all manner of asteroid impacts and climatic traumas. Nevertheless, many biologists think that species are somehow frozen in time by environmental forces that keep them from straying from their little niches. This being so, paleontologist D. Jablonski, University of Chicago, asks: If stability is the rule, how do you get large-scale shifts in morphology? How do you get from funny little Mesozoic mammals to horses and whales? From Archaeopteryx to hummingbirds ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fossil Meteorites Over a century ago, astronomer H.W .M . Olbers (of Olbers Paradox fame) remarked that meteorites are extremely rare in the fossil record. While meteorites are found in profusion in some specially favored surface deposits (Antarctica and Australia's Nullarbor Plain), there are very few records of any being found in the immense volumes of coal, gold ores, and other geological materials that have been mined down the centuries. Of course, many meteorites escaped the notice of miners who were looking for something else. Nevertheless, few have been reported from strata more than a few thousand years old. (See ESI8 ... Neglected Geo logical Anomalies.) It is therefore surprising that a veritable lode of fossil meteorites has been found in a limestone quarry at Kinnekulle, in southern Sweden. "During the sawing of a few thousand cubic meters of Ordovician limestone into 2-3 cm thick slices, 25 fossil meteorites have been found. All meteorites, except, four, have been found in a 60 cm thick bed called the Archaeologist. This bed represents a few hundred thousand years and contains several hard ground surfaces...Many of the Archaeologist meteorites are prominently angular in shape whereas others are round. This seems difficult to reconcile with an atmospheric breakup of a single large meteorite." B. Schmitz and M. Tassinari, the authors of this paper, suggest that this rare concentration of fossil meteorites represents ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Facing Up To The Gaps The textbooks and professors of biology and geology speak confidently of the fossil record. Darwin may have expressed concern about its incompleteness, but, especially in the context of the creation-evolution tempest, evolutionists seem to infer that a lot of missing links have been found. Some scientists, however, are facing up to the fact that many gaps in the fossil record still exist after a century of Darwinism. One has even dispaired that "the stratigraphic record, as a whole, is so incomplete that fossil patterns are meaningless artefacts of episodic sedimentation." D.E . Schindel, Curator of Invertebrate Fossils in ... Peabody Museum, has scrutinized seven recent microstratigraphical studies, evaluating them for temporal scope, microstratigraphical acuity, and stratigraphical completeness. His first and most important conclusion is that a sort of Uncertainty Principle prevails such that "a study can provide fine sampling resolution, encompass long spans of geological time, or contain a complete record of the time span, but not all three." After further analysis he concludes with a warning that the fossil record is full of habitat shifts, local extinctions, and general lack of permanence in physical conditions. (Schindel, David E.; "The Gaps in the Fossil Record," Nature, 297:282, 1982.) Comment. This candor makes one wonder how much of our scientific philosophy should be based upon such a shaky foundation. From Science ...
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... anomalous?] 297 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 40 illus., 3 indexes, 1993. 494 references, LC 91-68541, ISBN 0-915554-27-5 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans III: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print Completing our trilogy on human anomalies, this volume focuses on four areas (1 ) the human fossil record; (2 ) biochemistry and genetics; (3 ) possible unrecognized living hominids; and (4 ) human interactions with other species and "entities " Typical subjects covered: Neanderthal demise * Giant skeletons * Tiny skeletons * Hominid gracilization * Sudden brain expansion * Human chimeras * Sasquatch / Bigfoot, Alma, Yeti, and others * Human-animal communication * Humanity and Gaia * Anomalous ... of human lice Comments from reviews: "Some fascinating thinking om the frontiers of science", Borderlands. 212 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 44 illus., 3 indexes, 1994. 311 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-29-1 , 7x10. Biology Handbook For a full list of biology subjects, see here . Biological Anomalies: Mammals I: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print The first three biology catalogs deal with human anomalies. Here, we attend to the "other" mammals, and two volumes will be required This, the first, parallels Humans I in focusing on external attributes (1 ) physical appearance; (2 ) behavior; and (3 ) talents and faculties. Typical subjects covered: ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Prescient Evolution Lately, a fossil moth egg was found in 75-million-year-old sediments in Massachusetts. The egg is positively assigned to the moth family Noctuidae and extends the fossil record of this family back into the Cretaceous. So what? Well, it turns out that Noctuidae family moths have special organs for detecting the ultrasonic cries of insect-hunting bats. The fossil record of the bats, however, only goes back to the early Eocene, perhaps 20 million years after the Noctuidae moths. Since no other insect predators like bats existed, it would seem that the moths developed these special organs in anticipation of the bats ... (Gall, Lawrence F., and Tiffney, Bruce H.; "A Fossil Noctuid Moth Egg from the Late Cretaceous of Eastern North America," Science, 219:507, 1983.) Comment. Do humans have talents that seem unimportant now but which may be useful some day? Calculating prodigies, eidetic imagers, etc. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archaeopteryx and forgery: another viewpoint We have here what must be considered the evolutionists' reply to the claim of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that overzealous followers of Darwin deliberately tampered with scientific evidence. "Archaeopteryx lithographica might be regarded as the most important zoological species known, fossil or recent. Its importance lies not in that its transitional nature is unique -- there are many such transitional forms at all taxonomic levels -- but in the fact that it is an obvious and comprehensible example of organic evolution. There have been recent allegations that the feather impressions on Archaeopteryx are a forgery. In this report, proof of authenticity is provided by exactly matching hairline cracks and ... ; "Archaeopteryx Is Not a Forgery," Science, 232:622, 1986.) Comment. The article itself offers some new evidence, but seems to fall a bit short of the proof promised in the Abstract. Let us wait for a rebuttal by Hoyle & Co. The Abstract's claim that many transitional forms exist at all taxonomic levels certainly does not square with the fossil record described by the punctuated evolutionists! In any event, the fossil record gap between dinosaurs and sophisticatedly feathered Archaeopteryx is still a Marianas Trench. From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The cretaceous-tertiary extinction bolide The recently discovered worldwide iridium-rich layer is taken by many scientists as evidence of the collision of an asteroid or comet with the earth about 65 million years ago. This cataclysmic event is also blamed (by some, at least) for the apparent sudden biological extinctions recorded on these pages of the fossil record. In this setting, the authors of this paper calculate the effects on the earth of a 10-kilometer-diameter object impacting at about 20/km/sec. Do the theoretical results jibe with the geological and paleontological data? Very definitely. Crater ejecta rich in extraterrestrial material would be blasted to an altitude of 10 km, where winds would insure global distribution. In terms ... 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The cretaceous-tertiary extinction bolide The recently discovered worldwide iridium-rich layer is taken by many scientists as evidence of the collision of an asteroid or comet with the earth about 65 million years ago. This cataclysmic event is also blamed (by some, at least) for the apparent sudden biological extinctions recorded on these pages of the fossil record. In this setting, the authors of this paper calculate the effects on the earth of a 10-kilometer-diameter object impacting at about 20/km/sec. Do the theoretical results jibe with the geological and paleontological data? Very definitely. Crater ejecta rich in extraterrestrial material would be blasted to an altitude of 10 km, where winds would ...
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... ., when chordates diverged from invertebrates) actually began about 1 billion years ago, rather than about 545 million years ago. This expansion of the time frame gives accepted evolutionary processes much more time to innovate and create all those new body plans. The evolutionists are pleased. The paleontologists, however, are in a quandry. They see nothing -- or very little -- in the Precambrian fossil record that substantiates the claim of Wray at al. Thus, molecular biology directly contradicts the findings of paleontology. Not to worry say supporters of the new and much more comfortable scenario: The Precambrian animals were so soft and "squishy" that they did not fossilize well. (Ref. 3) Comment. The molecular biologists are a bit arrogant in their assertions. They seem to assume ... because they can quantify molecular divergences; that is, fill their journal contributions with numbers; that their data is more sound than fossiliferous strata. But their crucial assumption of constant DNA divergence in time may be their undoing. References Ref. 1. Anonymous; "Deflating the Biological Big Bang," Science News, 150: 335, 1996. Ref. 2. Perlman, David; "Origin of Animals -- 1.2 Billion Years Ago," San Francisco Chronicle, October 25, 1996. Cr. J. Covey. Ref. 3. Wray, Gregory A., et al; "Molecular Evidence for Deep Precambrian Divergences among Metazoan Phyla," Science, 274:568, 1996. Homology vs. DNA. Until the molecular biologists recently arrived on the scene ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hopeful monsters rather than gradual evolution?S. J. Gould, who conducts a monthly column in Natural History reviews the sad history of Goldschmidt and his villification by the scientific establishment. Goldschmidt saw the fossil record as woefully inadequate to justify the assumption of gradual evolution of one form into another. Intermediate forms between separate species do not seem to exist in the fossil record and, if they did, they would probably not have been viable creatures. What good is half a wing? Gould believes that Goldschmidt's "hopeful monster" concept will ultimately be dusted off. The key to "macromutation," Gould feels, is not to be ... in major gene reorganizations that might produce a whole wing, feathers included, all at once, but rather in changes in the genes that control the development of embryos. Embryos in their early stages are pretty much alike regardless of species. Gould hopes further that the ruling neo-Darwinians will not be so hostile to new ideas and eventually acknowledge Goldschmidt's important work. (Gould, Stephen J; "The Return of the Hopeful Monster," Natural History, 86: 22, June-July, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Hardball for Keeps Connecticut "Boat" Cairn "High"-tech Farming At Tiahuanaco Astronomy The Cosmological Atlantis Mysterious Bright Arcs May Be the Largest Objects in the Universe Too Many Short-period Comets Quantized Galaxy Redshifts The Fossil Record and the Quantization of Life! Biology Whales and Seafloor Pits Strange Patterns in Another Oceanic Habitat Lunar Magnetic Mollusc Monarchs Slighted -- sorry! Did We Learn to Swim Before We Learned to Walk? How Cancers Fight Chemotherapy The Melanic Moth Myth Chain of Crevicular Habitats? Feathered Flights of Fancy Geology Why Are Antarctic Meteorites Different? More on the Soviet Plume Events Geophysics Sympathetic Lightning Ball Lightning Burns A Rayed Circle ... A Shed Wall Magnetic Precursors of Large Storms On the Trail of the Fifth Force Psychology Do You Hear What I Hear? Mind-bending the Velocity Vectors of Marine Algae ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Doubts About Two Ritually Recited Theories Do you think humans originated in Africa? We have heard for so long now that modern humans got their start in Africa. (This assertion is as hackneyed as: "Life began in a warm little pond"!) There is, of course, some evidence for the African claim. Studies of genetic material and the fossil record are suggestive, although the latter includes the Middle East as a possible birthplace. Other data, however, put the "founding group" of modern humans in Southeast Asia. The iconoclast here is C.G . Turner, II, an anthropologist at Arizona State University. He has analyzed secondary dental traits (number of roots, bumps, etc.) of 12,000 individuals ... around the world - both ancient and modern. Turner believes that the "great web of humanity" originated in Southeast Asia. Since then, two large populations, each recognizable by their dental features, have evolved.: (1 ) northeast Asians and the ancient residents of the Americas; and (2 ) southeast Asians, Europeans, ancient Australians, and Africans. Also of note is the close resemblance between native Australians and Africans. (Bower, B.; "Asian Human Origin Theory Gets New Teeth," Science News, 136:100, 1989.) Did the eruption of Thera do in the Minoans? According to popular archeolo-gical doctrine, the eruption of a volcano on the island of Thera destroyed the great Minoan civilzation on Crete. Tidal waves, a thick ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects Spontaneous order, evolution, and life In our thinking, one of the most remarkable articles ever to appear in Science bears the above title. Most re markable of all is the use of the word "spontaneous" without philosophical comment. The stimuli for the research described are such observations as: (1 ) life exists; (2 ) life evolves; (3 ) the fossil record displays stasis, extinctions, and great gaps between phyla and lesser classifications; and (4 ) disordered molecules move smoothly and surely into the order manifest in the living cell. The question asked in the article is whether science has missed something in its description of the origin and development of life. Just what makes molecules coalesce into cells and humans? The answer given is: spontaneous self ... organization ! In other words, there is no guiding external force. Molecules do this spontaneously. There are even computer models being developed, based on a branch of mathematics called "dynamical systems," that describe how this all happens - spontaneously, of course. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "Spontaneous Order, Evolution, and Life," Science, 247:1543, 1990.) Comment. When water molecules spontaneously cluster together to form a snowflake, with all its symmetry and order, science explains the process in terms of the properties of water molecules. The same must be true when molecules merge to form life forms. But why do atoms and molecules possess these properties that lead to bacteria, to humans, to who-knows-what's -next? ...
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... with a paralyzing stare! It also seems impervious to spears and shotgun pellets. Natives and some cryptozoologists equate this animal to the legendary Mapinguari. P. J. Wynne's impression of South America's late-surviving giant sloth. D.C . Owen, an American biologist working with the Goeldi Natural History Museum in Belem, Brazil, has been tracking these stories. The present fossil record asserts that giant ground sloths resembling the supposed Mapinguari did occupy western Amazonia up to about 8700 years ago. To this must be added the appearance of an apparently fresh skin of the animal in 1897. Even more recently, gold miners are said to have killed a giant sloth. As with the North American Bigfoot, hard data are elusive, particularly actual specimens, dead or alive. ... is optimistic, however. He sees his hunt for the Mapinguari as more than just another useless monster hunt: "If South America's largest terrestrial mammal has been hidden to science until 1994, what else does the Amazon have in terms of biodiversity that's new to us?" (Stolzenberg, William; "Bigfoot of the Amazon," Nature Conservancy , p. 7, July/August 1994. Anonymous; "The Mother of All Sloths," Fortean Times, no. 77, p. 17, October/November 1994.) Comment. Where is the 1897 skin? What happened to the sloth killed by the gold miners? Cryptozoology has always been plagued by disappearing critical evidence! The possible survival of the giant sloth is covered in greater depth under BMD11 ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Missing links: the big ones still elude us "Under the very best circumstances, however, morphological and stratigraphically graded transitions between classes and subclasses have been found. At the level of phyla and higher categories, any information on transitions as far as the fossil record is concerned is essentially nonexistent." (Olson, Everett C.; "The Problem of Missing Links; Today and Yesterday," Quarterly Review of Biology, 56:405, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Non-lethal tektites It is the fashion these days to blame the many so-called "extinctions" prevalent in the fossil record on extraterrestrial cataclysms. Some deposits of tektites and microtektites have indeed been correlated with the disappearances of some species. Since tektites are supposedly formed during meteor collisions with the earth, many scientists thought the evidence, circumstantial though it may be, very convincing. What has not been publicized as well is the fact that many microtektites, particularly in sediments 30-40 million years old, have no correlations whatsoever with any important biological extinctions. (Anonymous; "Non-lethal Tektites," New Scientist, 99 ... 345, 1983.) Reference. The many paradoxes and anomalies associated with tektites are cataloged at ESM3 in: Neglected Geological Anomalies. Information on this book may be found here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the geological record. Under such intense bombardment, it would probably have been difficult for advanced life forms to develop. (Croswell, Ken; "Why Intelligent Life Needs Giant Planets," New Scientist, p. 18, October 24, 1992.) Comment. Reasonable as the foregoing assertion sounds, we do not really know what stimulates the development of new life forms. Actually, the fossil record reveals that some biological "radiations" occurred soon after great geological upheavals. That the Jupiter-Saturn "shield" was and is not completely effective is indicated by the heavy debris traffic mentioned above. From Science Frontiers #85, JAN-FEB 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Africa not man's origin!The following abstract is from a 1982 paper in Nature. "It has been suggested that the evolution of man took place in Africa. This suggestion results from the unusual abundance of fossil material in Africa that is quite ancient in comparison with what is known elsewhere. The theory of an African origin has influenced the interpretation of the age of some non-African archaeologial sites. A case in point is the 'Ubeidiya locality in Israel, which is generally considered to be about 700,000 yr old because it has been assumed by a few that the associated Early Acheulian tool industry, and the persons ... used it, would have taken considerable time to disperse from Olduvai Gorge to this non-African site in Israel. Here we evaluate fossil mammals from 'Ubeidiya, which are stratigraphically and directly associated with Early Acheulian artifacts, and find no substantial reason for considering the locality younger than 2Myr, and possibly as much as 500,000 yr older than any record of Early Acheulian artefacts or Homo erectus in Africa." (Repenning, Charles A., and Fejfar, Oldrich; "Evidence for Earlier Date of 'Ubeidiya, Israel, Hominid Site," Nature, 299:344, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... account for some mysterious terrestrial phenomena such as that unaccountable lack of a significant crater in Siberia, where the 1908 Tunguska blast leveled a huge forest but hardly disturbed the ground. Recently, Mirror Matter has been invoked to explain the ups and downs of terrestrial biodiversity. R. Foot and Z. Silagadze propose that the 26-millionyear periodicity in terrestrial extinctions -- claimed to be present in the fossil record -- is due to a solar-system planet made of Mirror Matter (and therefore invisible). This postulated planet has a period of 26-million years and regularly gravitationally jostles the Oort Cloud of comets on the periphery of the solar system. These jolts unleash torrents of devastating comets upon the inner solar system every 26-million years, thereby blasting the earth and its sensitive ... cargo. This supposed Mirror-Matter planet happens to be the conceptual double of a Normal-Matter, hypothetical planet named Nemesis, which was proposed in the 1980s to account for the same periodical extinctions in the fossil record. However, diligent searches did not locate Nemesis. Of course, if Nemesis were made of Mirror Matter, as now proposed, it would have escaped telescopic detection then and would still elude our telescopes today! (Schilling, Govert; "Through the Looking Glass," New Scientist, p. 16, April 28, 2001.) Comment. Not only is a crater missing at the Tunguska site, but no one has been able to positively identify the immense impact crater that we suppose must have been excavated when untold numbers of tektites rained down upon Australia, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects African Fossil Sequences Support Punctuated Evolution East of Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya, the geologist finds exceptionally fine sequences of fossil molluscs in old lake deposits. Williamson has scrutinized the distribution of some 190 faunas with high stratigraphic resolution; that is, he believes he has been able to sketch for the first evolutionary events on a fine time scale. Williamson underlines three important observations: (1 ) Species seemed to arise suddenly, as predicted by the "punctuated evolution" model; (2 ) The formation of new species was accompanied by marked developmental instability in the transitional forms; and (3 ) All lineages were morphologically stable for long periods ... - they did not change form! The biological implications of this important study are summarized in the preceding item. (Williamson, P.G .; "Palaeontological Documentation in Cenozoic Molluscs from Turkana Basin," Nature, 293:437, 1981.) Comment. Evolutionists have often bewailed the obvious lack of transitional forms (missing links) in the stratigraphic record. According to Williamson's results, transitional forms would be few in number and display considerable morphological instability. In essence, this means that missing links may not exist in a practical sense. If this is true, one wonders whether those famous evolutionary family trees in all the textbooks, such as that of the horse, are really misleading. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William ...
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... "The Essential Nonexistence of the Evolutionary-Uniformitarian Geologic Column: A Quantitative Assessment," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 18:46, 1981.) Comment. Do missing geological pages constitute anomalies? Not when taken one by one, for occasional lapses are to be expected. But taken en masse, the record seems so skimpy that one wonders. Woodmorappe turns the knife by emphasizing that most fossils used for dating overlap anywhere from a few to all ten periods, further compounding the uncertainty. From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Descent of man -- or ascent of ape?New Scientist has just published a controversial pair of articles by John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas. Summarizing mightily, it seems that: There are no fossils that are unequivocally ancestral to chimpanzees and gorillas but not to man; Therefore, the only good measure of the time when these three species split from one another is the comparison of genetic material; Genetic dating and serological techniques are unanimous in dating the chimp-gorilla-man split at about 5 million years ago. The conclusion that chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans diverged from a com mon ancestor only 5 million years ago is opposed to ... ; "The Molecular Making of Mankind," and "Descent of Man -- Or Ascent of Ape?" New Scientist, 91:518 and 91:592, 1981.) Comment. This hypothesis is inflammatory enough without our adding more fuel, but the possible connection to the Sasquatch/Abominable Snowman problem should not be overlooked. Reference. The many problems associated with the human fossil record are discussed in Chapter BHE in our Catalog: Biological Anomales: Humans III. For more information on the book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 5: November 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Obscure Origin Of Insects And Their Wings The earliest fossil insect is a wingless springtail found in Scotland's Devonian cherts, which conventional dating schemes tell us are about 350 million years old. Some biologists doubt that springtails should be classified as true insects. In any event, these ancient springtails are considered too specialized to be the ancestors of modern winged insects. The next insects in the fossil record appear suddenly in the Upper Carboniferous (300 million years ago) with fully developed wings. There exists an embarrassing 50-million-year gap between the fossil springtails and the more specialized insects. Evolution requires that this gap be filled with many random ... at insect construction, including the first attempts at fashioning wings. Whalley admits the gap and the total mystification of paleontologists about how insects and biological flight first developed. Perhaps, he surmises, wings may have been the natural extrapolation of flap-like outgrowths required for body cooling. Random mutations would have added the muscles needed to orient the flaps and move them to improve circulation! (Whalley, Paul; "Derbyshire's Darning Needle," New Scientist, 78:740, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . The ratio of choice was a disappointing 1:2 rather than 0.618! (Macrosson, W.D .K ., and Stewart, P.E .; "The Inclination of Artists to Partition Line Sections in the Golden Ratio," Perceptual and Motor Skills , 84:707, 1997.) Why Barbie Is Beautiful. A study of a long series of hominid fossils reveals a progressive loss of some physical attributes and the acquisition of other characteristics. One wonders why evolution has been remodeling the human form in what often seem to be nonadaptive ways. A curious, superficially frivolous test may offer some insights, some of which may be profound. Drawings and photographs showing humans with various physical traits were prepared and shown to 495 subjects, who were asked to select ... red lips, large eyes, square shoulders, straight teeth, straight fingers, smooth and hairless skin, nonsloping foreheads, flat abdomens. These are all features "derived" during evolutionary history. A look at a photograph of a Barbie doll, which accompanied the article, proves that Barbie epitomizes these favored characteristics. Apparently, human males have been selecting their mates for these traits. The fossil record indicates this Barbie trend over millions of years. In effect, humans are selectively breeding themselves with Barbie as a goal for women. Interestingly, dolls with more of the primitive traits have never been able to compete with Barbie in the marketplace. (Magro, Albert M.; "Why Barbie is Perceived as Beautiful," Perceptual and Motor Skills , 85:363, 1997.) ...
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... that those mysterious Cro-Magnons, who seem to have appeared out of nowhere, got to western Europe ahead of schedule. They are probably the artists who made those 31,000-year-old cave paintings at Grotte Chauvet in southern France. Even though of slighter build and smaller brains, the Cro-Magnons are thought to have quickly replaced the Neandertals. Complicating the picture is abundant fossil evidence of so-called "archaic" Homo sapiens in Europe commencing some 500,000 years ago. Did these archaic versions of modern humans evolve into Neandertals before the Cro-Magnons (modern humans) arrived on the scene? Some paleoanthropologists now believe so. Just the other day it was generally thought that Homo erectus rather than "archaic" Homo sapiens gave rise to the Neandertals. ... Hublin, Jean-Jacques; "The First Europeans," Archaeology, 49:36, January/ February 1996) Comment. We, too, are confused. Don't take these human evolutionary family trees too seriously. They change with each new "find," and these seem to come several times each year. Reference. Human evolution, as seen in the fossil record, is covered in section BHE in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans III. Ordering information here . How a Neanderal was pictured in an 1873 issue of Harper's Weekly. No senstive, caring, loquacious man he! From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... be no evidence that Homo habilis ever made it to Europe.) (Ackerman, Sandra; "European History Gets Even Older," Science, 246:28, 1989.) Comment. It should be pointed out that revised dates, new skeletal material, and additional contoversial sites are constantly appearing in the literature. The history of the hominid lineage is in flux. Reference. The human fossil record is changing rapidly as new discoveries come to the fore. Our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans III contains an entire chapter on anomalous fossils. For details on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Until this find, our supposed ancestors were generally thought to be small and puny; but here is a strapping fellow, looking much like a modern human, although his skull and jawbone resemble those of a Neanderthal. (Joyce, Christoper; "Now Pekin Man Turns Up in Kenya," New Scientist, p.8 , October 25, 1984.) Reference. Anomalies in the hominid fossil record are cataloged in Chapter BHE in Biological Anomalies: Humans III. Details on this book here . From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... primarily upon his claim that his mollusc lineages support the punctuated evolution model (which they do) but avoid his main point: namely, that the lineages are static over very long periods of time. They do not change slowly, bit by morphological bit, into new species as an evolutionist would expect. Instead, they remain un-changed until they become extinct. This striking aspect of the fossil record is not predicted by neo-Darwinism -- and there is the rub! (Williamson, Peter G.; "Morphological Stasis and Developmental Constraint: Real Problems for Neo-Darwinism," Nature, 294:214, 1981.) Comment. In neo-Darwinism, evolution unfolds by small accumulated changes, the causes of which may be chemicals in the environment, nuclear radiation ... and other "stresses." Neo-Darwinism goes hand-in-hand with geological Uniformitarianism, both of which are favored philosophically by scientists because slow change is more amenable to scientific explanation. The large sidewise steps of punctuated evolution are difficult to explain in terms of known "forces." In this context, the radical concepts of directed panspermia and the impact of viruses on evolution may be important! From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... "ashes" of the Population-III stars provided the makings of the later stars with their heavier elements. However, no matter how hard astronomers have looked, no Population-III stars seem to be left anywhere -- not even far out in the universe, which we see in terms of light billions of years old. A vital "transititional form" is missing in astronomy's fossil record! (Maran, Stephen P.; "Stellar Old- Timers," Natural History, 96:80, February 1987.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... similar to those in a spinach leaf. (Anonymous; "15-Foot Sea Worm Has Plant Qualities," San Diego Evening Tribune, May 22, 1980. UPI dispatch) Comment. This curious biological anomaly developed in an ecological niche where the primary energy source for sustaining life is geothermal rather than solar. How did this remarkable situation arise? Do the tube worms have relatives in the fossil record showing a step-by-step development of inside-out stomachs? From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , believing that intelligent life is probably unique to the earth. But concludes Ornstein, the 15 separate developments of eyes among disparate terrestrial organisms may infer some unrecognized directing factor in evolution that would force him to revise his estimate upwards drastically. On the other hand, those 15 eyes might indicate a common, but still undiscovered, eye-possessing ancestor far back along evolution's track. The fossil record might be mute on this matter because eyes are soft tissues that are rarely preserved or perhaps because many eyes were jettisoned because the organisms didn't need them, as cave dwellers are wont to do with surprising rapidity. Some of the letters responding to Tipler questioned whether an intelligent civilization would be stupid enough to build self-reproducing von Neumann machines for galactic exploration. Wouldn't ... be far more fun to go in person rather than by proxy? And, some pointed out, von Neumann machines would be ravenous consumers of energy and materials and might turn on man as an unnecessary competitor. Machines are not immutable. Space radiation and other environmental factors might alter computer programs and memories to drastically affect the behavior and objectives of such machines. Actually, as one letter writer observed, the earth has already been invaded by a self-reproducing, energy-hungry machine with exploratory tendencies -- man! (Anonymous; "Extraterrestrial Intelligence: The Debate Continues," Physics Today, 35:26, March 1982. Also: Ornstein, Leonard; "A Biologist Looks at the Numbers," Physics Today, 35:27, March 1982.) From Science Frontiers ...
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... can lose its life when a platypus clamps its legs around its muzzle and drives in its spurs. But, ask evolutionists, how did this poison apparatus get on the hind legs? The supposed ancestors of the platypus, the reptiles, modified their salivary glands for venom delivery. How did the platypusses break from this evolutionary mold and innovate? It's not consistent with the text! The fossil record reveals that a platypus-like creature lived long before the Age of Mammals. These early platypusses had teeth in the adult phase, whereas their modern relatives replace their baby teeth with horny plates -- another innovation. Therefore, far from being a hodgepodge of parts left over from bird and reptile evolution, the platypus has actually pioneered several zoological features. Very curious is the fact that ... platypus is in many ways like the beaver -- a very, very distant relative both in distance and position on the Tree of Life. Both platypus and beaver are furry, aquatic creatures with webbed feet and a large, flat tail. We have saved the strangest part for the end! Platypusses, being Monotremes (one-enders) have a common vent for waste and reproduction. Beavers, it turns out, are among the very rare placental mammals that (like the birds) possess a cloaca -- a common vent for urine and excrement. (Hoffman, Eric; "Paradoxes of the Platypus," Scientific American, 264:18, March 1991.) Comment. The "beaver" part just mentioned was not in Hoffman's article; we added it because ...
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... of a new journal focussing upon evidence for preColumbian contacts between the Old and New Worlds. Except for the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, such early visitations are denied by mainstream archeology. Yet, there are hints everywhere that both the Atlantic and Pacific were crossed frequently before Columbus set sail. One class of pre-Columbiana consists of linguistic, artistic, literary, and fossil evidence that distinctive New World plants were known in the Orient well before 1492. C.L . Johannessen, a geographer at the University of Oregon, demonstrates in a long article that both India and China knew and exploited a surprisingly wide range of American plants. For example, many carvings in Indian temples depict maize, which originated in the New World. A similar situation prevails for the ... , chili peppers, sweet potatoes, the yambean, and grain amaranths. Most startling, though, has been the discovery of New World peanuts at two Neolithic sites in eastern China. The associated dates are astounding: 2,400 BC and 4,400 BC. Who was sailing the wide Pacific while the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge were under construction? Supporting the fossil peanuts is a written Chinese record of 300 AD describing a plant that buries its flowers in the soil and makes seeds that rattle when dry. Peanuts are very unusual that they flower above ground and then burrow into the ground to form nuts -- a characteristic one must see to believe and a story hard to fabricate. (Johannessen, Carl L.; "American Crop Plants in Asia before A.D . 1500 ...
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... great assurance that we evolved from earlier hominids, such as Homo erectus and, perhaps, Homo nean derthalis. Homo erectus has long been a key feature of all those charts of human evolution decorating our textbooks. But this venerable taxon is getting fuzzier and fuzzier. "Reappraisal by Cornell University paleontologists of a 200,000-year-old skull from India's Narmada River suggests that the fossil was probably a Home sapiens -- not a Homo erectus -- and marks another spot of the globe where humans may have evolved. .. .. . "The reappraisal of Narmada Man preceded the recently announced discovery of two Middle Pleistocene fossils from Yunxian, China, that seem to share the traits of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Kennedy would like to bury the taxon Homo erectus ... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Homo erectus never existed!( Left) Homo erectus skull. (Right) Homo sapiens skull. Are these markedly different skulls representative of two different species or merely variants of the same species? The record of human evolution is littered with skeletons -- not only the legitimate bones of early hominids but also with discarded evolutionary charts and discredited taxons. A taxon is a welldefined biological classification, such as a phylum or species. We modern humans are given the label Homo sapiens. We are told with great assurance that we evolved from earlier hominids, such as Homo erectus and, perhaps, Homo nean derthalis. Homo erectus has long been ...
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... million years old. Nothing surprising so far! However, history records that in the late 1700s many human skeletons -- all indistinguishable from modern humans -- were excavated from this limestone. One of the quarried specimens, ensconced in a 2-ton slab, was shipped to the British Museum. It arrived in 1812 and was placed on public display. With the ascendance of Darwinism, the fossil skeleton was quietly spirited away to the basement. The discovery of these human remains has been well-documented in the scientific literature. Here is another pertinent geological fact: the limestone formation in question is situated 2-3 meters below a 1-million-year-old coral reef. If the limestone is truly 25 million years old, the human evolutionary timetable is grossly in error. ... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hushing Up The Guadeloupe Skeleton Just offshore of Guadeloupe, in the West Indies, lies a kilometer-long formation of extremely hard limestone dated as Miocene, or about 25 million years old. Nothing surprising so far! However, history records that in the late 1700s many human skeletons -- all indistinguishable from modern humans -- were excavated from this limestone. One of the quarried specimens, ensconced in a 2-ton slab, was shipped to the British Museum. It arrived in 1812 and was placed on public display. With the ascendance of Darwinism, the fossil skeleton was quietly spirited away to the basement. The discovery of these ...
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... formations of new species." (McClintock, Barbara; "The Significance of Responses of the Genome to Challenge," Science, 226:792, 1984.) Comment. The implications here are broad and deep. Evolution can be driven by external stresses. The new species thus produced may differ substantially from the original organism, eliminating the need to look for "missing links" in the fossil record. What "hope-ful monsters" are latent in our human genome, awaiting only the right stresses to manifest themselves? And is the genomes's malleability reversible; that is, can extinct species be recovered when the engendering stresses are removed? From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... million-year periodicity in biological extinctions have been given wide publicity recently. One theory has it that periodic comet showers have created this regular pulse beat in the history of life. A recent issue of Science presents the results of an analysis of the ups and downs of 20,000 marine genera -- that is, percent extinctions over a period of 600 million years, as revealed by the fossil record. The graph of ten groups of 1000 genera shows at least two things: (1 ) strong hints of periodicity; and (2 ) suggestions that extinctions, whatever they really are, "cut across functional, physiological, and ecological lines." The plotters of these graphs, D. Raup and G. Boyajian, claim that whatever the mechanism, "major pulses of extinction ... from geographically pervasive environmental disturbances." What besides powerful, external physical forces (read "comets and asteroids") could affect such wide ranges of marine organisms? (Lewin, Roger; "Pattern and Process in Extinctions," Science, 241:26, 1988.) Comment . This all sounds so reasonable that one must wonder why it is given space in Science Frontier. The reason is that we have a suspicion that it is all too easy, too simplistic. Could something more subtle be at work? After all, we really know next to nothing about the real workings of life-as-a -whole, its ups and downs. It is so easy to say that a group of organisms was done in by a temperature change or the fall of acid rain ...
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... entire outlook of science is in flux. The words "chaos" and "complexity" are the current buzz words. They betoken, finally, the formal recognition by science that nature is frequently: Unpredictable (as in weather forecasting beyond a few days) Complex (as in any life form) Nonlinear (as in just about all real natural phenomena) Discontinuous (as in saltations in the fossil record) Out-of-equilibrium (as in real economics) Eroding fast are the philosophical foundation stones of the clockwork universe: the idea that nature is in balance, that geological processes are uniformitarian, that life evolved in small, random steps, and that the cosmos is deterministic. My view is that anomaly research, while not science per se, has the potential to destabilize paradigms ... accelerate scientific change. Anomalies reveal nature as it really is: complex, chaotic, possibly even unplumbable. Anomalies also encourage the framing of rogue paradigms, such as morphic re-sonance and the steady-state universe. Anomaly research also transcends current scientific currency by celebrating bizarre and incongruous facets of nature, such as coincidence and seriality. However iconoclastic the pages of this book, the history of science tells us that future students of nature will laugh at our conservatism and lack of vision. Such heavy philosophical fare, however, is not the main diet of the anomalist. The search itself is everything. My greatest thrill, prolonged as it was, was in my forays through the long files of Nature, Science. the English Mechanic, the Monthly Weather Review, the Geological Magazine, ...
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... Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Stone Enigmas of New England Astronomy Sun-Earth-Moon System May Not Be Stable Changes in Solar Rotation Biology Hopeful Monsters Rather Than Gradual Evolution? Hedgehogs Use Toad Venom for Defense Blind Man Runs on Lunar Time Infections From Comets Geology Will Radiohalos in Coalified Wood Upset Geological Clocks? How Real Are Biological Extinctions in the Fossil Record? Geophysics Another Indian Ocean Light Wheel Ghostly White Disk and Light Beam in Sky Fast-moving Dark Bands Cross Halo The Morning Glory Giant Ball Lightning Psychology Does Man Survive Death? ...
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... , however, is more than half the age of the earth, so one can infer this part has not recirculated recently." (Anderson, Don L.; "Where on Earth Is the Crust?" Physics Today, 42:38, 1989.) Comment. The machinations of plate tectonics, therefore, may well be responsi ble for missing sections of the geologi cal column and fossil record. From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lop-sided evolution We risk supersaturating our readers with the anomalies of evolution, but we simply cannot bypass an article that is introduced as follows: "An analysis of the fossil record reveals some unexpected patterns in the origin of major evolutionary innovations, patterns that presumably reflect the operation of different mechanisms." The most interesting "unexpected pattern" is the gross asymmetry between the diversification of life in the Cambrian explosion (about 440 million years ago) and that following the great endPermian extinction (a little over 200 million years ago). Biological innovation was intense in both instances; both biological explosions burst upon a life-impoverished planet. ... niches were unoccupied. Even so, all existing (and many extinct) phyla arose during the Cambrian explosion and none followed the Permian extinction. ". .. why has this burst of evolutionary invention never again been equaled? Why, in subsequent periods of great evolutionary activity when countless species, genera, and families arose, have there been no new animal body plans produced, no new phyla?" Some evolutionists blame the asymmetry on the different "adaptive space" available in the two periods. "Adaptive space" was almost empty at the beginning of the Cambrian because multicellular organisms had only begun to evolve; whereas after the Permian extinction the surviving species still represented a diverse group with many adaptations. (Just how the amount of "adaptive space" available was communicated to the " ...
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... a computer in some other universe? "Nature, it seems, has honed us into informavores so voracious that some can persuade themselves that there is nothing but information." (As quoted in: Science, 273:443, 1996) Comment. If we really are simulations, that "computer in some other universe" has taken great pains to also simulate millions of other species and their fossil records! (Could a cybergod do all this?) Fun to think about anyway. Come to think of it, Omar may have had it right when he wrote: "We are no other than a moving row of magic shadow-shapes that come and go." Well, maybe that's too far-fetched; but what about all those UFOs and their occupants; ... are a bit shadowy?! They might be cyberbeings. From Science Frontiers #108, NOV-DEC 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... rather than by wires. Human engineers would never have tried this stratagem; it is not even in their computer-design repertoire. (Taubes, Gary; "Computer Design Meets Darwin," Science, 277:1931, 1997.) Comments. Evolvable hardware, like God and Nature, works in mysterious ways! As the above type of hardware evolves, it will probably leave a "fossil record" full of mysterious transitions! What shall we call the units a cyberheredity? "Cyberenes" is too cumbersome. How about: "bytenes"? From Science Frontiers #115, JAN-FEB 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... also contain 0.36-0 .58% graphitic carbon. It is fluffy stuff and suggests that the planet was once covered by a thick layer of soot. Quantitatively, the soot layer is equivalent to the carbon in 10% of the earth's present biomass. The authors speculate that this soot was created by huge wildfires that consumed much of the earth's vegetation and perhaps fossil fuel as well. Terrestrial life was, of course, devastated -- just as it is in the currently popular "nuclear winter" scenarios. The end-of-the-Cretaceous soot is in fact, thicker and more widely spread than nuclear winter theories predict. (Wolbach, Wendy S., et al; "Cretaceous Extinctions: Evidence for Wildfires and Search for Meteoric Material ... " Science, 230:167, 1985.) Comment. Questions arise, though: How could a single meteorite impact ignite worldwide wildfires? Why haven't other meteorite impacts, recorded abundantly by large craters and astroblemes, also set fire to the planet and left iridium layers? From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2  -  Score: 196  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf043/sf043p14.htm
... ," Journal of Geophysical Research, 96:9837, 1991.) Comment. The earth also sports scars from the impacts of large meteoroids. Are there magnetic anomalies opposite these craters? Even more interesting to check out would be the holes blasted in the earth's biosphere by the converging masses of hot gases at the an tipodal points. Wouldn't there be extinctions seen in the fossil record at these antipodal points? Reference. Magcons are cataloged as ALZ1 in The Moon and Planets. This catalog is described here . From Science Frontiers #78, NOV-DEC 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2  -  Score: 196  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf078/sf078a04.htm
... field reversals are of geophysical origin, how do the magnetic bacteria find their food sources during the long periods of near-zero field? Lab experiments prove that magnetic bacteria require free oxygen to secrete magnetite, but the Precambrian atmosphere and oceans were supposedly devoid of oxygen until 2.3 billion years ago. How did the magnetic bacteria prosper before then? (Simon, C.; "Tiniest Fossils May Record Magnetic Field," Science News, 124:308, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2  -  Score: 196  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf031/sf031p14.htm
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