MAJOR news about early tetrapods today.

Okay, I've exaggerated by putting MAJOR in all-caps, but here it is:

Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland

The fossil record of the earliest tetrapods (vertebrates with limbs rather than paired fins) consists of body fossils and trackways. The earliest body fossils of tetrapods date to the Late Devonian period (late Frasnian stage) and are preceded by transitional elpistostegids such as Panderichthys and Tiktaalik that still have paired fins. Claims of tetrapod trackways predating these body fossils have remained controversial with regard to both age and the identity of the track makers. Here we present well-preserved and securely dated tetrapod tracks from Polish marine tidal flat sediments of early Middle Devonian (Eifelian stage) age that are approximately 18 million years older than the earliest tetrapod body fossils and 10 million years earlier than the oldest elpistostegids. They force a radical reassessment of the timing, ecology and environmental setting of the fish–tetrapod transition, as well as the completeness of the body fossil record.

I'll update with a detailed explanation soon.

The reality-based community can follow the LCROSS project at NASA's LCROSS website

NASA sure does know how to drag out the kooks. NASA's innovative new project for studying the Moon's chemistry and attempting to detect water involves effectively slamming a projectile into the Moon's surface and analyzing the resulting ejecta. The Register reports on the crazies who are concerned about the US government's latest 'bombing campaign':

He wasn't alone, either, with various observers backing the surrealists' possible belief that NASA might inadvertently cause major havoc with their crater strike. This might seem to be impossible given the bigness of the Moon, the smallness of the LCROSS, and the laws of physics - but there were those who disagreed. Commentard Greenstar perhaps summed up this point of view best:

Think of the planets in terms of forming a sentence. The Earth is a noun. The moon is a verb. Its very existance creates action in the tides, the weather, and possibly human mood. It's perfection of rotation sets into play all the components that make it possible for life here to exist and yet no life exists there. How is that possible? Wouldn't it seem logical for the earth to have a reciprocal effect on the moon - but it doesn't. The laws of symbiosis don't apply. If the moon is nothing more than a big rock then it can be cleaved like a big rock. Laws of mass and density don't apply nor do they offer us protection from the idiots at NASA who have never watched a diamond cutter. They are big boys with BIG toys and brains the size of a TRex AND are running the risk of making us all extinct.



In the meantime. The reality-based community can follow the LCROSS project at NASA's LCROSS website

Larry Moran Ardipithecus ramidus

Larry Moran has a good piece about the newest fossil hominid find, Ardipithecus ramidus. He goes after some of the irresponsible reportage from both the journalists and scientists alike. Having dealt with the sometimes difficult task of explaining the significance of certain new fossils to journalists, I can understand that sometimes things would get lost in translation. However, here we have an example of highly problematic statements coming from both scientists and the media.

I've got a lot on my plate this week, but I would like to write a comment or two about Ardipithecus this week. Hopefully I'll have that up soon.

Dr. Gans

Carl Gans, a giant in the field of comparative and functional morphology, has died at 86.

Dr. Gans has left a profound and lasting impact on vertebrate anatomy and evolution. His work with Glenn Northcutt laid foundations for modern ideas on the role of neural crest in the evolution of the vertebrate head. He was the editor of the 23-volume Biology of the Reptilia, a remarkable source of ideas and data on reptile biology and evolution.

Obituaries: NY Times; CNAH

Tip to Palaeoblog