I came across this today:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/01/27/1419241112
"Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis"
Significance :An ancient deep-sea mud-inhabiting 1,800-million-year-old sulfur-cycling microbial community from Western Australia is essentially identical both to a fossil community 500 million years older and to modern microbial biotas discovered off the coast of South America in 2007. The fossils are interpreted to document the impact of the mid-Precambrian increase of atmospheric oxygen, a world-changing event that altered the history of life. Although the apparent 2-billion-year-long stasis of such sulfur-cycling ecosystems is consistent with the null hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution—if there is no change in the physical-biological environment of a well-adapted ecosystem, its biotic components should similarly remain unchanged—additional evidence will be needed to establish this aspect of evolutionary theory.
Abstract: The recent discovery of a deep-water sulfur-cycling microbial biota in the ∼2.3-Ga Western Australian Turee Creek Group opened a new window to life's early history. We now report a second such subseafloor-inhabiting community from the Western Australian ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation. Permineralized in cherts formed during and soon after the 2.4- to 2.2-Ga “Great Oxidation Event,” these two biotas may evidence an opportunistic response to the mid-Precambrian increase of environmental oxygen that resulted in increased production of metabolically useable sulfate and nitrate. The marked similarity of microbial morphology, habitat, and organization of these fossil communities to their modern counterparts documents exceptionally slow (hypobradytelic) change that, if paralleled by their molecular biology, would evidence extreme evolutionary stasis.
Edited by Thomas N. Taylor, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, and approved January 5, 2015 (received for review October 6, 2014)
A friend of mine made the following appropriate comment:
"Ahem. The "the null hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution”? That would mean that no evolution for 1.8 billion years is not only consistent with Darwinism but actually demanded of it. In other words, the proof of evolutionary theory is the fact that no evolution might occur for 1.8 billion years. Or, to put it into clearer words, the refutation of a theory is its proof.
With thinking like this we have abandoned not only science but also logic."
IOW, if organisms Evolve over 2 billion years, then that is evidence of Evolution. If organisms remain the same over 2 billion years, then that ALSO "provides promising evidence" of Evolution. The part about the environment remaining unchanged is nothing more than unadulterated BS of the lowest order.
Yup, boys and girls, that is how "science" works. Ya got it?
Now go home and study ... there will be a quiz tomorrow.
Jorge
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/01/27/1419241112
"Sulfur-cycling fossil bacteria from the 1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation provide promising evidence of evolution's null hypothesis"
Significance :An ancient deep-sea mud-inhabiting 1,800-million-year-old sulfur-cycling microbial community from Western Australia is essentially identical both to a fossil community 500 million years older and to modern microbial biotas discovered off the coast of South America in 2007. The fossils are interpreted to document the impact of the mid-Precambrian increase of atmospheric oxygen, a world-changing event that altered the history of life. Although the apparent 2-billion-year-long stasis of such sulfur-cycling ecosystems is consistent with the null hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution—if there is no change in the physical-biological environment of a well-adapted ecosystem, its biotic components should similarly remain unchanged—additional evidence will be needed to establish this aspect of evolutionary theory.
Abstract: The recent discovery of a deep-water sulfur-cycling microbial biota in the ∼2.3-Ga Western Australian Turee Creek Group opened a new window to life's early history. We now report a second such subseafloor-inhabiting community from the Western Australian ∼1.8-Ga Duck Creek Formation. Permineralized in cherts formed during and soon after the 2.4- to 2.2-Ga “Great Oxidation Event,” these two biotas may evidence an opportunistic response to the mid-Precambrian increase of environmental oxygen that resulted in increased production of metabolically useable sulfate and nitrate. The marked similarity of microbial morphology, habitat, and organization of these fossil communities to their modern counterparts documents exceptionally slow (hypobradytelic) change that, if paralleled by their molecular biology, would evidence extreme evolutionary stasis.
Edited by Thomas N. Taylor, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, and approved January 5, 2015 (received for review October 6, 2014)
A friend of mine made the following appropriate comment:
"Ahem. The "the null hypothesis required of Darwinian evolution”? That would mean that no evolution for 1.8 billion years is not only consistent with Darwinism but actually demanded of it. In other words, the proof of evolutionary theory is the fact that no evolution might occur for 1.8 billion years. Or, to put it into clearer words, the refutation of a theory is its proof.
With thinking like this we have abandoned not only science but also logic."
IOW, if organisms Evolve over 2 billion years, then that is evidence of Evolution. If organisms remain the same over 2 billion years, then that ALSO "provides promising evidence" of Evolution. The part about the environment remaining unchanged is nothing more than unadulterated BS of the lowest order.
Yup, boys and girls, that is how "science" works. Ya got it?
Now go home and study ... there will be a quiz tomorrow.
Jorge
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