July 27, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
Fossilization and Missing Links
Tonight we shall continue with the extract
from the 1914 essay of Nathan Cobb titled “Nematodes and their Relationships”
that he wrote for the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture.
“The location of various plants and animals
would still be decipherable, and, had we sufficient knowledge, in many cases
even their species could be determined by examination of their erstwhile
nematode parasites.”
This is why in spite of their numerical
predominance the soft-bodies organisms are rarely found in fossil forms which
is dominated by molluscs, vertebrates, echinoderms (marine animals exhibiting
radial symmetry such as starfishes) and the brachiopods (possessing hard
“valves” or shells on their upper and lower surfaces).
Having understood the process of
fossilization it is therefore not surprising that the so called “intermediate
forms” or the “missing links” between species that the True-Believers of all
hue and colors seek or demand are physically absent in our midst.
And yet it is fairly easy to be deluded by
one’s ignorance (and denial) and come to the false conclusion that
“transitional forms” in the forms of fossils are absolutely lacking for I can
provide you with a long list of them.
The “transitional forms” of fossils have
been divided into categories that reflect their transitions from one class of
organisms to other such as subphylum vertebrata, invertebrate, superclass
agnatha, jawed vertebrates (gnathostomata), bony fishes or osteichthyes and so
on.
The categories of “transitional forms” are
as follows:
Invertebrate to vertebrate
Jawless fish to jawed vertebrae
Acanthodian to Shark
Primitive Jawed Fish to Bony Fish
Fish to Amphibian
Primitive to Modern Amphibians
Amphibian to Reptile
Early reptile to diapsid (group of amniote
{land egg-laying} tetrapods)
Early diapsid to turtle
Early synapsid (possess temporal fenestra
behind each eye orbit) to mammal
Dinosaur to Bird
Primates
Non-human primate to human
The fact is that even though plenty of
fossils of “transitional forms” have been discovered to the mind of a
True-Believer they will always be insufficient and inconclusive.
Can you guess why?
The answer is the pseudo problem of gaps in
the fossil record so beloved of True-Believers.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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