(June 30, 2014 at 11:58 pm)Jenny A Wrote:nice try - these thoughts ( 1 & 2) go together - 1) Because of the complexity of the bone arrangement, some scientists have argued that the innovation arose just once—in a common ancestor of the three mammalian groups. 2) Now, analyses of a jawbone from a specimen of Teinolophos trusleri, a shrew-size creature that lived in Australia about 115 million years ago, have dealt a blow to that notion. The recently discovered fossil, one of six jawbones by which the species is known, is also the best preserved, says Thomas H. Rich, a paleontologist at the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Rich and his colleagues describe their find in the Feb. 11 Science.(June 30, 2014 at 11:11 pm)snowtracks Wrote: "bones in all living mammals' ears arose at least twice along independent evolutionary pathways"
http://www.phschool.com/science/science_...bones.html
common descent took a big hit. a better interpretation of the observation is that God reused the design.
Really? Here's what the article says:
Quote:The configuration of these ear bones is similar in all three extant groups of mammals: the placental mammals, which bear live young, the pouched marsupials, and the egg-laying monotremes, such as the duck-billed platypus. Because of the complexity of the bone arrangement, some scientists have argued that the innovation arose just once—in a common ancestor of the three mammalian groups
Now, analyses of a jawbone from a specimen of Teinolophos trusleri, a shrew-size creature that lived in Australia about 115 million years ago, have dealt a blow to that notion. . . .
Its teeth place T. trusleri within the monotreme group, says Rich. However, a distinct groove on the rear of the animal's jawbone indicates that its ear bones were embedded in a mass of cartilage there.
This placement, more characteristic of mammals' reptilian ancestors, hints that not all early mammals possessed the modern-day configuration of ear bones. It also implies that today's monotreme descendants of T. trusleri developed the distinctive stapes-incus-malleus configuration independently of marsupial and placental mammals.
There's nothing about that suggests god had a hand in designing the ear bones. It's just one more difference between the three mammal groups extant today. It also shows mammals relationship to reptiles.
Notice by the way that scientists change their opinions in light of new evidence, unlike creationists who merely interpret everything to conform to the same preconceived ideas.
Atheist Credo: An universe by chance that also just happened to admit the observer by chance.