The Fossil Record
Including Transitional Fossils
Fossils, Rocks
and Time
A
Tail of Long Ago (off site)
Stromatolites: Earths earliest life forms from western
Australia's Pilbara region (off site)
How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise? (off site)
Carl ZimmerWhen scum ruled the earth (off Site)
Planet Earth online, 29 December 2008
"Newly-discovered fossils are shedding light on the organisms that lived on land before plants came on the scene."
Punctuated
Equilibria (off site)
Wesley Elsberry
The
Division of Paleontology
at the American Museum of Natural History (off
site)
A Tree of Life (off site)
Tree or Trellis
(off site)
Carl Zimmer
The
Therapsid-Mammal Transitional series
(off
site)
Lenny Flank
Prehistoric Reptiles From
Russia Possessed The First Modern Ears
(off
site)
Science Daily
12 September 2007
Impedance-Matching Hearing in
Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception
at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution
(off
site)
Johannes Müller, Linda A. Tsuji
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany
Ancient
serpent shows its leg (off
site)
Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News
Eutheria: Placental Mammals (off site)
Mammaliformes: Docodonta (off site)
Ancient Kiwi 'mouse' fills fossil gap
(off site)
Marilyn Head
ABC Science Online
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Bats Flew First, Developed Echolocation Later, Fossilized Missing Link Shows (off site)
The discovery of a remarkably well-preserved fossil representing the most primitive bat species known to date demonstrates that the animals evolved the ability to fly before they could echolocate."
Transitional Vertebrate
Fossils FAQ (off site)
Kathleen Hunt
Smooth Change in the Fossil Record (off site)
Taxonomy, Transitional Forms,
and the Fossil Record (off site)
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
The vestigiality of the human vermiform appendix
A modern reappraisal
(off site)
Evidence of Evolutionary
Transitions (off site)
Michael Benton, Ph.D.
Virtual fossils reveal how ancient creatures lived
Jo Marchant, 27 May 2009
"BEHIND the war of words over the significance of
Ida, the
47-million-year-old-primate fossil unveiled last week, a quiet
revolution in palaeontolgy is unfolding. Thanks to a souped-up version of a
technique better known for its use in medical diagnostics, we are gaining
unprecedented insights into the way prehistoric creatures lived, breathed and
grew."
Evolution IN Action: Native U.S. Lizards Are Adapting To Escape Attacks By Fire Ants (off site)
ScienceDaily, Jan. 24, 2009
"Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Tracy Langkilde has shown that native fence lizards in the southeastern United States are adapting to potentially fatal invasive fire-ant attacks by developing behaviors that enable them to escape from the ants, as well as by developing longer hind legs, which can increase the effectiveness of this behavior."
Vertebrata (off site)
The Fossil
Hominids - the Evidence for Human Evolution (off
site)
Jim Foley
Humans split from chimps 'recently'
(off
site)
"Chimpanzees and humans split from a common ancestor just 4 million years ago,
much more recently
than current estimates of 5-7 million years ago, a new study
shows."
Ancient ape forces rethink of
family tree
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Science
News
"Researchers working in Ethiopia have unearthed the fossils of a 10 million year
old ape,
a discovery they say suggests humans and African great apes may have split
much earlier than thought."
Michael Kahn, Reuters, 23 August 2007
Walking upright started in trees
(off
site)
From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News in Science
Will Dunham, 1 June 2007
Fossil Hominids: Frequently
Asked Questions (off site)
Jim Foley
Human ancestors had big brained babies (off Site)
ABC Science
"The fossilised Homo erectus pelvis found in Ethiopia suggests females swayed their hips as they walked and gave birth to relatively developed babies with big heads, say researchers."Human hair linked to ancient claws (off Site)
ABC Science
"A new study has identified a gene associated with hair production in present-day lizards and chickens, which may trace its origins back more than 300 million years ago."Human Origins from Afar (off site)
"Sands and sediments in one corner of Ethiopia provide a time machine to revisit whence we came. "
"The Scientist"
(Free registration is required)Slow human evolution revealed by worm genome (off site)
Humans have retained genomic characteristics of a very ancient ancestor that have been lost in simpler animals such as the fly, indicating that humans are one of the most slowly evolving species.
Hominid
Succession
Helen Lawrence
D2700, Homo erectus (or Homo ergaster) (off site)
Early Human Phylogeny (off site)
Evolution's Missing Link
(off site)
A Sedimentologist offers a new explanation for one of
evolution's great mysteries.
Early Primate Provides Evolution Clues
(off site)
Ned Potter, 19 May 2009
"'Most
Complete Primate in the Fossil Record' Unveiled in New York"
Why Ida fossil is not the missing link (off site)
Chris Beard, NewScientist, 21 May 2009
"Unbridled hoopla attended the unveiling of a 47-million-year-old-fossil primate skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on 19 May. Found by private collectors in 1983 in Messel, Germany, the press immediately hailed the specimen as a 'missing link' and even the 'eighth wonder of the world'."
Fossils from the Messel site
(off site)
"At the Messel pit near Darmstadt in Germany
where Ida fossil was excavated, palaeontologists have found hundreds of
well-preserved specimens."
PHOTOS: 7 Major "Missing Links" Since Darwin (off site)
National Geographic
"For the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 2009), National Geographic News asked leading scientists for their picks of the most important fossils that show evolution in action—seven of which are presented here, starting with this 'fishapod.'"
Hominid fossils show their age (off site)
The Call of the
Black Cockatoo
A book by Helen Lawrence (Press release)
Making Friends with Fossils
A booklet by Helen Lawrence (Press release)
Fossil
Hominids: Response to Walter Brown's
In the Beginning (off site)
Jim Foley
Overview of Human Evolution (off site)
On Creation Science and
"Transitional Fossils" (off site)
Tim Thompson
Use and Abuse of the Fossil Record
(off site)
Penny Higgins
Hooke, Fossils and the Anti-Evolutionists (off site)
The
Fossil Record: Evolution or "Scientific Creation"? (off site)
Clifford A. Cuffey
Pentecostals vs. Paleoanthropologists (off site)
"Famed Paleontologist Richard Leakey Is Taking on Church Leaders Who Are Pressing Kenya's National Museum to Hide Its World-Famous Fossil Collection"
29+
Evidences for Macroevolution
The Scientific Case for Common Descent
(off site)
Douglas L. Theobald, Ph.D.
KNM-WT
15000, "Turkana Boy", Homo erectus (off
site)
Jim Foley
The Fossil Record 2 (off site)
Prominent Hominid
Fossils (off site)
Jim Foley
Fossil
Hominids: Illustrations (off site)
Homo floresiensis:
the Hobbit (off site)
"Homo floresiensis
is a species of dwarf human discovered at the Liang Bua cave on the
Indonesian island of Flores in 2003"
Hobbits Alive?
(off site)
Carl Zimmer
Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A
Separate Species (off site)
"After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old,
Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003,
some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a
microcephalic -- a human with an abnormally small skull."
Out Of Africa - Bacteria, As Well: Homo Sapiens
And H. Pylori Jointly Spread Across The Globe
(off site)
"When man made his way out
of Africa some 60,000 years ago to populate the world, he was not alone:
He was accompanied by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which causes gastritis
in many people today."
Putting a face and form to early humans is both science
and art (off site)
Primates
(off site)
Lemurs, Tarsiers, Monkeys, Apes and Humans
Primate
Specialist Group (off site)
"The Primate Specialist Group is a
network of scientists and conservationists who stand against the tide of
extinction which threatens humanity's closest kin."
The Stone Age Institute (off site)
Technology, Adaptation and Evolution
Padian featured in SVP video (off Site)
National Center for Science Education, 9 November 2008
"A video project from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology devotes a segment to discussing paleontology, evolution, and creationism."We are SVP (off Site)
"WE ARE SVP is a 33-minute video that tells the inside story of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology -- who we are, what we do, and why our work is important for science and society. The video is introduced and narrated by Sam Waterston, the long-time star of 'LAW & ORDER.' "
Bite makes way for brain (off site)
"The Scientist"
(Free registration is required)
Prehistoric Lizard Called Historic Link (off site)
Fish to Amphibian Transition
(off site)
Glen Morton
Fossilized tissue found in ancient fish
(off site)
"Australian scientists say
fossilized muscle has been discovered in the remains of two fish that lived
about 380 million years ago."
Fossil fish rewrites evolution of mammals
(off site)
"Australian scientists say the recent discovery
of a fossil fish has rewritten the record of evolution of land mammals."
Tropical fish can live for months out of water (off site)
Mica Rosenberg
A tropical fish that lives in mangrove swamps across the Americas can survive out of water for months at a time, similar to how animals adapted to land millions of years ago
Humans have a bit of shark in them (off site)
From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News in Science
Jennifer Viegas, 30 May 2007Scientists Call Fish Fossil the 'Missing Link' (off site)
"In addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils are widely seen by scientists as a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who hold a literal biblical view on the origins and development of life."
Missing The Wrist
(off site)
"If
this is the sort of stuff that's used to promote 'critical thinking' in
Louisiana classrooms, don't be surprised to hear about the great gravity
hoax."
Carl Zimmer, 14 July 2008
Two New Discoveries Answer Big Questions In Evolution Theory (off site)
Puijila darwini - a prehistoric
walking seal
"This prehistoric animal represents a 'missing
link'—a branch on an evolutionary tree—between an ancestor that walked on land
and today's sea-going seals and their relatives."
Panderichthys (Fish to Terrestrial Vertebrate) (off site)
Acanthostega (Fish to Terrestrial Vertebrate) (off site)
"New fossils of an ancient, four-limbed creature help fill in the blanks of the evolutionary transition between fish and the first land-adapted vertebrates."Fossil helps document shift from sea to land (off site)
Fins to Limbs: New Fossil Gives Evolution Insight
(off site)
National Geographic News
Marine Biology (off site)
The Fossils of Riversleigh: preserving a record of evolution in Australia (off site)
Ancient Fish Fossil May Rewrite Story of Animal Evolution
(off site)
National Geographic News
A wandering eye
(off site)
"Fossils show middle stage of the evolution of flatfish eyes to one side of
their head"
Ashley Yeager, 9 July 2008
Origin Of Jawed Vertebrates: Prehistoric Fish Provides New Piece In
Evolution's Jigsaw Puzzle
(off site)
ScienceDaily, Jan. 19, 2009
"In an article in the journal Nature January 14, Uppsala researcher
Martin Brazeau describes the skull and jaws of a fish that lived about
410 million years ago.
The study may give important clues to the origin
of jawed vertebrates, and thus ultimately our own evolution."
A Fin is a
Limb is a Wing
(off site)
Carl Zimmer
New
Genetic Data Overturn Long-held Theory Of Limb Development
(off site)
University of Chicago Medical Center, May 24, 2007
The Canowindra Story |
Dolphin Evolution (off site)
Hooking Leviathan By Its
Past (off site)
Stephen Jay Gould
AiG and Whale Evolution
Michael Suttkus
The most primitive foot to walk on land has been described by scientists (off site)
Titanis walleri: The elusive terror bird (off site)
Parrot Fossil 55 Million Years Old Discovered In Scandinavia (off site)
"It's a new species, officially named 'Mopsitta tanta'. However, already its nick-name is the 'Danish Blue Parrot', a term derived from a famous comedy sketch about a 'Norwegian Blue Parrot' in the 1970s BBC television programme 'Monty Python'".
From Science Daily
Fossil is missing link in elephant lineage
(off site)
"A U.S. paleontologist says
the fossil of a pig-sized creature found in East Africa represents the missing
link between ancient and modern elephants."
More Evidence for
Transitional Fossils
Warren Akers
Michael ShermerThe Fossil Fallacy (off site)
The proper reverence due those who have gone
before
(off site)
PZ Myers
A thoughtful essay about our distant ancestors
Build Me A Tapeworm
(off site)
"Darwin gave a lot of thought to the strangest
creatures on this planet, wondering
how they had evolved from less strange ancestors."
Carl Zimmer
"The story of how life evolved on Earth is hidden in its fossils. In Australia scientists are exposing secrets that lie hidden in our ancient rock"Oz fossils (off site)
They Call Me Mister Zimmer
(off site)
Carl Zimmer
"Readers of this blog will
have to indulge me from time to time so that I can respond to personal attacks
from creationists. I write about science, and I strive to do so accurately. I
also point out misinformation about science and explain why it’s wrong. So
when someone claims I can’t admit a mistake when I make one, or that I suffer
from an overactive imagination, I have to respond."
Old fish, new fish, red
fish, blue fish
(off site)
Patrick Barry, Science News, Web edition: 1 October
2008
"Changes in sense organs could be splitting
cichlids in an African lake into two species."