Let’s Help “Professor Dave” Understand the Precambrian

Anabarites, bilaterians, Burgess Shale, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrotubulus, Carboniferous, Cloudina, Conotubus, Dave Farina, Dickinsonia, Ediacaran, embryos, Evolution, Fortunian, fossils, Gaojiashania, Intelligent Design, Kimberella, Mongolia, Namacalathus, Namapoikia, paleontology, Permian, Precambrian animals, Professor Dave, Protohertzina, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Meyer, Tommotian, Trilobozoa, wormworld
We have much to teach the non-professor, and I trust that he is grateful for the education being rendered to him here. Source
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“Lying on the Internet”? Debunking Dave Farina on Stephen Meyer

acritarchs, Avalon Assemblage, bilaterians, body plans, Cambrian Explosion, Carl Zimmer, Caveasphaera, China, Cladonia chlorophaea, Cloudina, cnidarians, Darwin's Doubt, Dave Farina, demosponges, Dickinsonia, Doushantuo fossils, embryos, Eumetazoa, Evolution, fossils, Gregory Retallack, Haootia quadriformis, Helicoforamina, homology, Ikaria, Intelligent Design, Internet, Joe Botting, Kimberella, Lantianella, Megasphaera, Metazoa, microfossils, Nama Assemblage, Namacalathus, New York Times, paleontology, Precambrian animals, Professor Dave, Spiralicellula, sponges, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Meyer, straw man, Tribrachidium, Vernanimalcula, White Sea assemblage, Xiuningella, Yilingia, YouTubers
A lot of nonsense gets published in peer-reviewed journals and it needs expertise to separate the wheat from the chaff. Farina lacks any expertise to do this. Source
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Untangling “Professor Dave’s” Confusion about the Cambrian Explosion

animals, birds, body plan, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, Casey Luskin, cladists, Darwin's Doubt, Dave Farina, Douglas Erwin, Ediacaran fauna, Ediacaran Period, Evolution, Fortunian, fossil record, great Ordovician biodiversification event, homology, insects, Nick Matzke, paleontology, phylum, plesiomorphic, Professor Dave, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Meyer, symplesiomorphy, synapomorphy, The Blind Watchmaker, wings, YouTubers
We have seen the absurdly low quality of this individual’s video. But there is much more. I have added timecodes in square brackets for easier reference. Source
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Fossil Friday: Fake Amber and the Piltdown Fly

amber, Andrew Ross, April Fools' Day, Baltic amber, cladistics, Dominican Republic, Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, Evolution, Fannia scalaris, forgeries, forgers, Fossil Friday, latrine fly, London, Mexico, Natural History Museum, paleontology, Piltdown fly, Schlauben, State Museum of Natural History, Stuttgart, tree resin, Willi Hennig
Such simple forgeries are commonly sold to tourists in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Asia. Source
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Human Origins: All in the Family

art, Australopithecines, burial, chain mail, Creativity, Culture, Donald Johanson, Erik Trinkaus, footprints, fossil record, Fossils and Human Evolution (series), Francesco d’Errico, habilines, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, Nature (journal), Neanderthals, Oxford University Press, paintings, paleoanthropologists, paleontology, Siegrid Hartwig-Scherer, Stephen Molnar, symbolic thought, Technology, total energy expenditure, University of Bordeaux, Washington University
If a Neanderthal walked down the street, appropriately dressed, you probably wouldn’t notice. Source
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Fossil Friday: A Fossil Butterfly Lookalike

apomorphies, beetles, Brazil, butterflies, butterflies of the Jurassic, convergence, Crato Formation, Darwinism, design pattern, Fossil Friday, fossil record, genetic predispositions, insects, Intelligent Design, Kalligrammatidae, lacewing, Lower Cretaceous, Lower Jurassic, Makarkina adamsi, Makarkina kerneri, mouthparts, natural selection, neuropterans, paleontology, science, Simon Conway Morris, Stephen Jay Gould, tape of life, University of Tübingen, wing span
An intelligent design paradigm can easily accommodate convergences as a natural consequence of a designer reusing the same ideas in different constructions. Source
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Could We Ever Recover Dinosaur DNA?

Alan Grant, Alida Bailleul, Bozeman, Centrosaurus, dinosaur DNA, dinosaurs, DNA, Evolution, fossilization, fossils, Gizmodo, Hypacrosaurus, Ian Sample, Jack Horner, Jeanne Timmons, Jurassic Park, Mary Schweitzer, Montana, Museum of the Rockies, National Science Review, paleontologists, paleontology, Princeton University, Renxing Liang, soft tissue, The Guardian, wooly mammoth, Yukon
There have been a number of unexpected finds from dinosaurs besides bones; some paleontologists dig hopefully. Source
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Fossil Friday: Turtles All the Way Down

Acerosodontosaurus, Bavaria, carapax, China, Claudiosaurus, convergence, Eorhynchochelys, Eunotosaurus, Eurysternum wagleri, Evolution, Fossil Friday, fossils, Germany, Intelligent Design, lepidosaurs, Middle Permian, Middle Triassic, Mörnsheim, Neo-Darwinism, Odontochelys, paleontology, Pappochelys, Parareptilia, phylogenetic reconstruction, phylogenomic studies, plastron, Proganochelys, Proterochersis, reptiles, sauropsids, Solnhofen Limestone, tortoises, turtle shell, turtles, Upper Jurassic
Contrary to the gradualistic expectations of Darwin’s theory, the distinct body plan of turtles appeared abruptly in the Late Triassic. Source
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Rare Fossil Preserves a Moment of Deadly Battle — And Recalls a Problem for Darwin 

abrupt appearance, Archaeopteryx, artist’s depiction, Aspidorhynchus, Bavaria, body plans, Darwinian theory, Evolution, fossil record, Germany, gradual development, Intelligent Design, Late Triassic, lithographic limestones, museums, nests, paleontology, predatory fish, predictions, pterosaurs, Rhamphorhynchus, sea floor, Solnhofen, track ways, transitional fossils
Pterosaurs appear abruptly in the fossil record of the Late Triassic, which agrees with the predictions of intelligent design theory. Source
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