I like fossils. I like irony. I can understand why so many people send me links to this article, or others like it: Alberta creationist Edgar Nernberg digs up what scientists are calling the most important fossil finds in decades, which calls these particular fossils “priceless”.
Yeah? Tell that to your local rock shop, which would happily slap a price sticker on them, and it wouldn’t be that high. These are 60 million year old fossils, and there are lots of fossil fish dug up like them. Osteoglossiformes, like these, are found in the Green River formation — they’re unusual around Calgary, but to call them “the most important fossil finds in decades” is absurd hype.
It’s also not so unusual that a creationist would find fossils. It’s kind of a standing joke that creationists spawn above the most interesting fossil sites: AiG’s Creation “Museum” is built atop the Cincinnatian layer, which is rich in Ordovician fauna. The Niobrara chalk in Kansas is full of Cretaceous marine organisms.
I agree that it’s amusing that a creationist’s basement contains 60 million year old fossils, but exaggerating its importance by calling it “the most important fossil finds in decades” is wrong and is just feeding the creationist’s ego.
If an astrologer scanning the sky with a telescope was the first person to notice a supernova, would that be counted under “discoveries of astrology?”
Answer: Yes … if you’re desperate to gain credibility and don’t care (or understand) how you get it.
[tongue out of cheek]
I was shocked (not really) by him trotting out the usual “get out of ~~~ FREE” card:
One interp is that God put those fish bones in that rock simultaneously when he created that land you call Canada. No need to understand how this could have happened _naturally_, after all God IS nature, so case closed.
Hey now, those are some of my relatives you’re dissing!
I had a really important fossil find in… decades … once.
When I was about seven I found a perfect ammonite in some mud near a river. This didn’t seem like the right place for such a thing to be so I asked adults about it. They told me that at one time the place I found it might have been under the sea but it still didn’t seem right that this perfect fossil was just half sticking out of some mud.
So I ended up asking a lot more questions. *That* was an important fossil find, at least to me.
The Sun is known for sensationalist and slanted crap like that. It’s a Fox News wannabe. More reliable sources (CBC, Calgary Herald, CTV, Globe and Mail, BBC, pretty much anything else) aren’t making that claim.
If you read down in the article, they admit that the actual quote was
. Which is pretty much what I guessed that an actual expert might say without even reading the article.
They had bones in their tongues? Remind me never to french-kiss one of them.
I bought a Green River fish fossil at the UW Geology Museum last year for my nephew. Price: $20. I attribute the low price on slave student labor.
Oceans of Kansas
They still do. And that bone bears teeth that bite against the ones on the floor of the braincase.
It’s actually normal for the whole oral cavity, gill bars included, to be covered with teeth.
Georgia Purdom of ‘Answers in Genesis’ on Facebook: “Creationist finds rare fish fossils while excavating a basement! Great example of looking at the same evidence but having different conclusions because of different starting points.” Hers being ‘never mind the evidence what about the word of God’.
AiG’s Creation “Museum” is
built atop the Cincinnatian layer, which is rich in Ordovician fauna. The Niobrara chalk in Kansas isfull of Cretaceous marine organisms.Sorry I just had to do it.
@fakeemailaddress
The best description of the Calgary Sun I have heard was “It is a light read until you get to the comics.” My favorite Sun headline was “Woman Swerves to Avoid Meteor” The driver who had the close call with the meteor was on the #2 Highway near Red Deer. The meteor hit the ground north of Grande Prairie, missing her by hundreds of kilometers. The owner of the Sun chain is an old school fascist.
Is the Calgary Sun any relation to the British tabloid Sun?
@microraptor, #12:
We have transitional series in a good state of preservation showing that they share common ancestors.
Though I’m sure we’re missing issues along the way. It turns out not every issue gets preserved.
Oh, also?
List of newspapers owned are all Canadian. I don’t see any direct financial relationship to Rupert Murdoch.
@12 @13 The Sun is a very common newspaper name. It’s one of the classic newspaper “last names”.
@Crip Dyke #13- so it’s a result of parallel evolution?
Clams! Yummy delicious clams! ‘Specially those small dk. red/brown clams I used to eat on the left coast.
It makes a certain amount of sense — even though he’s a creationist and thus a self-deluded nimrod, he’s still a fossil hunter, so he knew what he was looking at. Most people, myself included, wouldn’t have known what we were about to drive a cat through.