Further to “New big fossil find in Canada’s Burgess Shale area features internal organs” and “New Burgess Shale find: Maybe the Cambrian (discovery) Era is just beginning,” here is an interesting passage from Steve Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt:
As Whittington analyzed the Cambrian fauna at the Burgess [in the 1960s], he realized that Walcott (before 1917) had grossly underestimated the morphological disparity of this group of animals. Many of the creatures in the assemblage featured unique body designs, unique anatomical structures, or both. Opabinia, with its five eyes, fifteen distinct segments, and claw at the end of a long proboscis exemplified the unique forms on display at the Burgess. But so did Hallucigenia, Wiwaxia, Nectocaris, and many other Burgess animals. To this day, paleontologists describing Nectocaris, for example, can’t decide whether it more closely resembles an arthropod, a chordate, or a cephalopod (a class of mollusk) (pp. 52–53).
And, given that brand new creatures have just been identified, it could get stranger still.
Oh, and by the way, today at about 11:30 a.m. EST,
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Paleontology
- #1 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution > Organic
- #1 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Theology > Creationism
and other denialist non-facts.
File cross-reffed with: Yes, Michael Cremo is still wrong, even though we don’t know why any more.
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