Friday, January 11, 2008

 

Political Relationships


Remember when I said we should give Mike Huckabee his due for being friendly to education while he was Governor of Arkansas? Okay, long enough!

Neil Shubin went looking for a fossil of a transitional form between fish and tetrapods on Ellesmere Island in Canada based on his prediction that the physical conditions revealed in the fossil record there were perfect for the evolution of such a creature and was of the right age for such a development. Shubin was rewarded with the 375-million-year-old Tiktaalik roseae. Now, the University of Chicago biologist is poised to publish an account of the find, entitled Your Inner Fish.

What has that to do with Huckabee? Well, last year he said: "If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, I'll accept that," clearly implying that he didn't but that he would be gracious and allow you your belief. I'll reciprocate, but that doesn't mean I won't comment. That also seems to be the case for Shubin:

It is far worse for Huckabee. Before apes, his ancestors were fish, worms, and other creatures. With jaw bones that correspond to gill bones in fish and sharks, a body plan shared with headless worms, and with parts of a DNA recipe shared with relatives of jellyfish, Huckabee's ties to some of the most humble forms of life on our planet run deep indeed.
But since he's a creationist, we already knew that.
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Comments:
Thanks for the tip. Just what I needed-- another book to add to my 4 page amazon.com wishlist!
 
... another book to add to my 4 page amazon.com wishlist!

Strangely enough, mine's 4 pages too.
 
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