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Illusions of Phylogeny

Split Rock

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Can you explain please how Carl Linnaeus came up with basically the same nested hierarchy system we still use today, when he knew nothing of evolution and was in fact a creationist?
 
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Split Rock

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The placement of turtles is indeed uncertain. Some molecular studies support putting them in with the diapsids. The matter is hardly settled. Turtles, like whales before them, have so many derived features with no surviving predecessor groups that it is difficult to classify them. Whales were not classified properly with the Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) until recently, and that was do to new molecular and fossil data. I predict that the same will occur for turtles. When my prediction comes through, you will drop the turtle example and scamper off to dig up another, even less well known exception. Meanwhile, your unpainted corner of the room will get smaller and smaller...

Once again you harp on the exceptions, rather than the preponderence of the data.
 
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CrazyChimera

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Isn't the whole point of evolution changing anyway? Why does everyone expect there to always be a fossilized animal with the trait? It might be a recent development.

Although, it would humor me to no end if god created the universe for turtles

God says: "I like turtles"
 
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Split Rock

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but most reptiles lay eggs too. In fact, the ones that the platypus lay are leatherly reptilian eggs, not hard-shelled bird eggs. The platypus is a good example of an intermediary between reptiles and mammals and support for the transition that occurred between the groups.
 
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Split Rock

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There is a famous quote attributed to J.B.S. Haldane which goes, the Creator must have had “An inordinate fondness for beetles," because he made hundreds of thousands of species of them.
 
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CrazyChimera

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There is a famous quote attributed to J.B.S. Haldane which goes, the Creator must have had “An inordinate fondness for beetles," because he made hundreds of thousands of species of them.

Yeah, I have heard that quote. How disappointing it would be to creationists if humans were just there on the side, and some other animal was made in god's image. Oh no, please don't let god be a giant insect.
 
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lifepsyop

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The placement of turtles is indeed uncertain. Some molecular studies support putting them in with the diapsids. The matter is hardly settled.

Of course. How can a fantasy story really be said to be settled? And molecular studies are just that: molecular studies. They say nothing about Common Descent, and they don't identify any common ancestors, ever. That is the illusory storytelling you insert into them.

Turtles, like whales before them, have so many derived features with no surviving predecessor groups that it is difficult to classify them.

There are no derived features or predecessor groups because Evolution didn't happen. You're just hallucinating darwinian mysticism.

Whales were not classified properly with the Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) until recently, and that was do to new molecular and fossil data.

And? It's just more storytelling. If they weren't classified as one thing they'd be classified as something else. The evo illusion proceeds in spite of data.

Oldest Antarctic Whale Found; Shows Fast Evolution

Here's a report of the fossil jaw of a fully aquatic "proto-whale" dated at 49 MYA, throwing a big wrench in the little whale transition timeline.

Does it matter? Of course not. Evolution dunnit. Even if we find whales popping up in the Cretaceous, it will just be something Evolution did, a "convergent aquatic adaptation of an earlier lineage".

A few years ago the evolution of semi-aquatic mammalians got pushed back 100 million years with the discovery of Castorocauda



Same thing happened with the advanced tetrapod tracks popping up 20 MYA before Tiktaalik.



It's not like any of your evolution stories matter. They will probably all be chucked in another decade and you'll be cranking out new ones. Evolution is a science-fiction industry.




Patience.

Loss, Reversions, and Homoplasies are invoked frequently to save the illusion of phylogeny. They just aren't advertised as much.

Besides, the fact that modern animals can nest within certain traits says nothing about Evolution in the first place.
 
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Loudmouth

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How do molecular clock studies work without common ancestry? Please explain.

There are no derived features or predecessor groups because Evolution didn't happen.

We are going to need to see evidence for this claim.

And? It's just more storytelling. If they weren't classified as one thing they'd be classified as something else. The evo illusion proceeds in spite of data.

The nested hierarchies are not an illusion.
 
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lifepsyop

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This is what makes evolutionary storytelling so comical. By default, any trait is going to be said to be either a derived innovation (apomorphic) or a retained ancestral trait (pleisomorphic).

If an animal has a trait found in a supposed "ancestral group" then it is retained from evolutionary ancestors.

If an animal has a trait not found in a supposed "ancestral group", then it's an evolutionary innovation!


By default, the presence of a trait could only be said to fall under one or the other. It's a coin with two heads. This is nothing but an evo smoke and mirror magic show.




The platypus and echidna (monotremes) is a good example of evolutionary storytelling.



Since they obviously don't nest within placental or marsupial mammals("Theria"), evolutionists will invoke the mystical imaginary past and conjure up a story where the "monotreme lineage" branched off from the common ancestor of Theria.

They could do the same for any group of animals that they were having trouble fitting into a nested group. Just push the problem back in time to wherever the conflict in nested grouping traits appear. (in this case, mostly the reproductive system) and create a new nested group from there.




Here's another punchline with monotremes.

An early cretaceous monotreme fossil shows the lack of a developed "mammalian ear bone", after it had already diverged from the lineage leading to Theria.

Yet these ear bones are present in living monotremes.

This has forced evolutionists to assume that the famous mammalian middle ear bones have independently evolved twice.




Independent Origins of Middle Ear Bones in Monotremes and Therians - Rich 2005

A dentary of the oldest known monotreme, the Early Cretaceous Teinolophos trusleri, has an internal mandibular trough, which in outgroups to mammals houses accessory jaw bones, and probable contact facets for angular, coronoid, and splenial bones. Certain of these accessory bones were detached from the mandible to become middle ear bones in mammals. Evidence that the angular (homologous with the mammalian ectotympanic) and the articular and prearticular (homologous with the mammalian malleus) bones retained attachment to the lower jaw in a basal monotreme indicates that the definitive mammalian middle ear evolved independently in living monotremes and therians (marsupials and placentals).

Independent Origins of Middle Ear Bones in Monotremes and Therians


So we see the nested hierarchy formed by the mammalian ear bones was broken, but it was rescued with magic. Evolutionists can just say something evolved multiple times (convergence), no matter how complex the feature is.
 
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Split Rock

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If its a made-up story, like the infamous creationist "water canopy theory," or "hydraulic sorting" to explain the fossil record, then it can be settled easily. You make up the "theory," and then you're done. "Creation scientists" never test their "theories" since if they do and then have to dismiss them, they just have to make a new one up that sounds good to people like you. In science, we actually have to deal with the evidence, and if new evidence demands it, we change our theories.



There are no derived features or predecessor groups because Evolution didn't happen. You're just hallucinating darwinian mysticism.
I was trying to explain why there are these issues with classifying turtles... I don't care if you accept it or not. The last sentence is just meaningless bluster and rhetoric.



And? It's just more storytelling. If they weren't classified as one thing they'd be classified as something else. The evo illusion proceeds in spite of data.
Enough data has finally come together for whale evolution that we can now say how to classify whales. All based on what you continue to claim has no meaning for evolution... data. How does that fit in with your little pet "evo storytelling illusion mysticism" paradigm? Don't bother to answer, we both know it does not.

With new data we can continue to change and tweak our theories to fit reality better. If certain features of whale evolution evolved a little earlier than we thought, so be it. We change the theory. Fantasies like creationism don't change with new data. Science does. Evolution does. Once again, we see your little pet paradigm fail.

Show me a whale in Cambrian rocks. Explain why whales have a pelvis, bit no rear legs. Explain why extinct whales did have rear legs. Explain something with your creationism fantasy. You can't.

It's not like any of your evolution stories matter. They will probably all be chucked in another decade and you'll be cranking out new ones. Evolution is a science-fiction industry.
Yes, changing our theories to match reality is a unique concept for a creationist like yourself to understand. I get it. Tell us about how the "dogma" of evolution changes with the "flavor of the week." While you're add it, you can explain how a dogma can change as often as you say it does and still be dogma.

Patience.
I have plenty of patience. I am still waiting for you to explain why your revisionistic paradigm of history has a creationist creating a nested hierarchy system with the specific goal of supporting common descent. BTW, when do you think I will be getting an answer to that question... anytime soon???

Loss, Reversions, and Homoplasies are invoked frequently to save the illusion of phylogeny. They just aren't advertised as much.
Which one of these are not possible, btw? Any??

Besides, the fact that modern animals can nest within certain traits says nothing about Evolution in the first place.
Trying to hedge your bet, now? Only genetic descent produces nested hierarchies, and you know it. That is why you are trying so very hard to claim that life doesn't fall into one.
 
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