Crash Course in Evolution and What It Is

[Auri-El]

Well, in case anyone's interested, my complaint didn't seem to do much. The division chair talked to the professor, who "seemed concerned that a student was having difficulty comprehending the class". Yeah, I smell bullshit. However, this frees me to challenge the professor's claims in class, provided I feel confident enough in my knowledge. Which isn't likely to happen; I did some online research of the guy, and he's done lectures for ICR and is a big friend of the "leading creationists." Meaning he knows his stuff. But I'm going to try, anyway.

So, he keeps saying that the primary reason for his disbelief in the dinosaurs-into-birds theory is because there were bird fossils found below where the "earliest" proto-bird should be. (his emphasis, not mine). On the other hand, he does say that it was hard to find evidence against some of the theories that he doesn't agree with; next time he says that I'll point out that lack of evidence is actually pretty good evidence that it's not true. Ahem, sorry to get sidetracked. About the bird: he is horrible at both spelling and biology, and he speaks very quietly so I can never catch the names of species he throws out, so I don't know what this "proto-bird" he claims is too early is called in order to look it up.

[Lithp]

You need to have another meeting with the division chair. Calmly explain to him that you aren't paying tuition to learn voodoo & dousing rods. Then hit him upside the head, to make sure it sinks in.

Seriously, if I were you, I'd be pretty pissed off.

[Random Gal]

Well, in case anyone's interested, my complaint didn't seem to do much. The division chair talked to the professor, who "seemed concerned that a student was having difficulty comprehending the class". Yeah, I smell bullshit. However, this frees me to challenge the professor's claims in class, provided I feel confident enough in my knowledge. Which isn't likely to happen; I did some online research of the guy, and he's done lectures for ICR and is a big friend of the "leading creationists." Meaning he knows his stuff. But I'm going to try, anyway.

So, he keeps saying that the primary reason for his disbelief in the dinosaurs-into-birds theory is because there were bird fossils found below where the "earliest" proto-bird should be. (his emphasis, not mine). On the other hand, he does say that it was hard to find evidence against some of the theories that he doesn't agree with; next time he says that I'll point out that lack of evidence is actually pretty good evidence that it's not true. Ahem, sorry to get sidetracked. About the bird: he is horrible at both spelling and biology, and he speaks very quietly so I can never catch the names of species he throws out, so I don't know what this "proto-bird" he claims is too early is called in order to look it up.

He's probably talking about Protoavis, a collection of small bones found in a Late Triassic flash flood deposit in Texas. The fossil was claimed to show avian features by its describer, but further analyses showed that the bones were badly preserved and probably belonged to several different animals. The skull, which supposedly contained the most birdlike features, turned out not to be as birdlike as originally claimed and was more like that of a traditional dinosaur.

There's also the argument that most of the "dinobirds" found in China are younger than the "First Bird" Archaeopteryx, but recent finds like Anchiornis do predate Archaeopteryx, which itself may be more like a common ancestor of birds and "raptor" dinosaurs than a highly derived bird.

[Kristine]

AAARRRRGGGG!!!!
http://www.political.com/ThankYou.aspx?g=5e3962899a17431e9ef48a932ff2f7a8&ust=4a8ea92702e44106b44aabdf21552308&se=54

[Svata]

Tending to agree that "reptiles" is a bogus class. More a "wastebin" than a meaningfull grouping.

If you want to see a real wastebin look up protista.

I mean seriously.

*Scientist discovers organism with traits of two or more kingdoms* (single-celled, self propelling photosynthesizer, for example) "Ummm.... Fuck it! Protist!"

[Random Gal]

The entire Linnean ranking system is crap left over from when science was still in its creationist infancy and needs to be thrown out entirely. Cladistics is the proper approach now.