" We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." - Dissent from Darwin

Natural selection [is used] carelessly as a mantra, as in the evidence-free “just-so stories” concocted out of thin air by mentally lazy adaptationists. (Stephen Jay Gould)

In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. (Isaac newton)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

How SHARK got his jaws

Paleontologists believed that, over millions of years, lamprey-like creatures evolved into jawed, bony fish. Picture a leech longer than your forearm with a rasp-like mouth that flares open at the end of its body. It turns out lampreys, long thought to have taken a different evolutionary road than almost all other backboned animals, may not be so different after all, especially in terms of the genetics that govern their skeletal development, according to findings to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The lamprey is like the great-, great-, great-aunt descended from the earliest backboned animal," said Michael Miyamoto, Ph.D., a professor and associate chairman of UF's zoology department.

Storyteller: Michael Miyamoto, Ph.D., a professor and associate chairman of UF's zoology department.

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