The missing link between whales and their four-footed ancestors discovered

[greiner3]

Hans Thewissen, PhD, Professor of the Department of Anatomy, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), has announced the discovery of the missing link between whales and their four-footed ancestors in the prestigious British journal Nature.

Scientists since Darwin have known that whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on land, and in the past 15 years, researchers led by Dr Thewissen have identified a series of intermediate fossils documenting whale’s dramatic evolutionary transition from land to sea. But one step was missing: The identity of the land ancestors of whales.

Now Dr Thewissen and colleagues discovered of the skeleton of Indohyus, an approximately 48-million-year-old even-toed ungulate from the Kashmir region of India, as the closest known fossil relative of whales. Dr Thewissen’s team studied a layer of mudstone with hundreds of bones of Indohyus, a fox-sized mammal that looked something like a miniature deer. In work published in the current issue of Nature, Dr Thewissen and colleagues report key similarities between whales and Indohyus in the skull and ear that show their close family relationship. The research by Dr Thewissen and his team was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/07121909.htm

Great find and a good article. There are some really tired ID 'scientists' across the bible belt these

days, trying their best to discredit this find and other recent advances in evolution. I figure that

there must be some 1,000,000 scientists in the US. They work diligently and without much pay or

rewards. They do it for the satisfaction that they are increasing the store of human knowledge.

Contrast this with the ID'ers. They work in small offices. The ones who really believe in what they

are doing is right for their cause are mean petty men (mostly) who's only scientific training came

about when they had to take either biology or chemistry to graduate from high school. These people are

pests, buzzing around your head and every so often biting you on exposed skin. It is the ID'ers who

are shills for big business that I believe are the real problem. They are the ones with the huge

budgets, the ones with the access to MSM and its journalists. The first instance of ID'er gets to the

hard core fundie. In my opinion, these people are lost anyway because they are told from birth that

intellect and reason is wrong. I would say that this is maybe 25% of the population at large. The

second ID'er gets to the mainstream person and creates confusion. This confusion helps placate the

mobs who are only too willing to go along with the lies. In this category of ID'er I place the

Discovery Institute and most conservative politicians. I say let them all rot in their own respective

hells.

[blogslut]

1. Very cool

I always remember that speech made by George C. Scott in "Day of the Dolphin" - where his character explains that the dolphin once walked on land and then chose to return to the sea. This find could very well explain why.

[symbolman]

2. Right on!

This means I can now Officially tell the ID People to "BITE ME" !!

Thanks!