Dwarf Mammoth and Evolution

by Chariklo 9 Replies latest social current

• 

  Chariklo

  I wonder what the Watchtower will say about the latest evolutionary news from the island of Crete?

  Here are extracts from the BBC Science News report, plus a link for anyone who wants to read it all.

  "The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say....
  
  "...Dwarfism is a well-known evolutionary response of large mammals to island environments," said Dr Herridge.
  
  This evolutionary phenomenon is thought to be driven by the relative scarcity of food sources or by the absence of predators.
  
  "Our findings show that on Crete, island dwarfism occurred to an extreme degree, producing the smallest mammoth known so far," she added.
  
  The teeth analysed in the study were originally collected by fossil hunter Dorothea Bate in 1904. They were first thought to belong to dwarf forms of the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which is considered the evolutionary ancestor of all dwarf elephants."

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18003093
• 

  Chariklo

  On reflection, probably the Watchtower will just behave like an ostrich and try to ignore it. If pushed, they'll quote the unreliability of science over the word of Jehovah as penned in that scientific journal, the Bible.
  
  And in a year or so, the Awake will, gasp, marvel, feature the wonderful dwarf mammoth as an illustration of the wonders of Jehovah's creation and the foolishness (somehow, they'll manage it) of those silly scientists.
• 

  cofty

  I want a dwarf Mammoth!
• 

  Flat_Accent

  IT'S STILL A MAMMOTH!! WHEN WILL YOU SEE THAT EVOLUTION IS A RELIGION!!

  Something like that.
• 

  Phizzy

  If they still push the literal view of the Adam and Eve story, as two real people who really lived a little over 6,000 years ago, whilst sitting in Turkey are the remains of a Temple built 11,600 years ago, Gobbekli Tepe, they will have to ignore this report too.

  La La Land is a lot more real than the world of the JW's.
• 

  Room 215

  Phizzy, it ain't just JWs .... there are lots of other fundie groups that take the Bible at its literal word, and are impervious to science.
• 

  Rabbit

  I have cancer, like a lot of folks we blame what we eat, drink, breathe...? Right ?

  Imagine my surprise when I found out that D I N O S A U R S ...had Cancer, too. Just like the ones in the front of the Green WT Bible (except millions & millions of years younger ! only the old ones got real sick.)
• 

  Londo111

  In the Witness view , the dwarf mammoth would be viewed within the same "kind". Microevolution is allowed...but then there is a "kind boundary" beyond which it is not supposed to adapt. W hen I was a teen, I wondered, "What stops macroevolution from happening?"
• 

  ziddina

  Rabbit, I'm so sorry to hear that you're having to fight off a cancer...

  But about your comment:

  "Imagine my surprise when I found out that D I N O S A U R S ...had Cancer, too. ..."

  Remember, there appears to have been more volcanic activity back then - well, depending on which geological period we're talking about, and where, but many of the vast volcanic rock deposits occurred during the times of the dinosaurs - Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

  http://www.t-rat.com/Pages/CretaceousSAz.html

  http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicPast/Places/volcanic_past_kansas.html

  Also, there is a hypothesis that elevated oxygen levels can cause free-radical damage to living cells. On the other hand, this MIT research indicated that oxygen does NOT contribute to free-radical damage...

  http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/guarente.html

  And then there's the possibility that elevated levels of trace gases in the atmosphere may have contributed to cancers in dinosaurs, as well as changes in earth's atmosphere that may have allowed MORE ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth.

  There are so many potential causes for cancer, it's hard to keep track of all of them...
• 

  Anony Mous

  There is scientific evidence that living longer than a certain amount of time causes cancer. There are genetically engineered mice who's cells have been engineered to not die as normal - the mice develop extreme amounts of cancer instead.