Another letter to the editor from someone who knows nothing about evolution.
Scientists have wondered whether an “extinct” dinosaur would ever be found alive.
Then, in April 1977, a Japanese fishing vessel caught a 4,000 pound, 33 yard creature off New Zealand. A qualified zoologist was on board and photographed, sketched, carefully measured and flipper samples were kept for tissue analysis.
Indeed, it was a plesiosaur, a sea dwelling dinosaur, which supposedly had been dead for one million years! But, recognizing that the creature would disprove their fossil/strata theory, western scientists said it must have been a sea lion! There was almost total news blackout on this in the West, with the exception of a few publications (New York Times, July 24, 1977; Nature, July 28, 1977.) If some dinosaurs were to be found alive today, then evolutionists think this would weaken their theory. But, actually that neither prove not weaken their theory, since dinosaurs — past or present — present no evidence of the evolutionary process.
In museums all over the world, dinosaur bone displays are exhibited as a proof of evolution. But, a living dinosaur has been found.
Consider this, only about 500 years ago, the aepyornis, a dinosaur bird nearly 10 feet tall and weighing half a ton still lived on the island of Madagascar (see National Geographic, October 1967, p 493.)
Albert Wareham
Box 445
Boulder
1 comment:
This letter is so full of ignorance and outright falsehoods that it's hard to know where to start.
Firstly, the Toyo-Maru carcase was that of a shark, probably a basking shark. This is acknowledged even by many creationist sources. As a vertebrate palaeontologist who specialises in plesiosaurs I can state quite categorically that there is no anatomical feature visible on the photographs of this caracase which in any way resembles that of any plesiosaur.
Secondly, plesiosaurs are not dinosaurs. They are a no more closely related to dinosaurs than we are, and are a completely different family of extinct marine reptiles.
Thirdly, the existence of dinosaurs today would in no way weaken evolutionary theory. In fact, many biologists will tell you that dinosaurs are still alive today, as birds are dinosaurs. There are many living organisms alive today which have far more ancient origins than dinosaurs. I have not read anywhere that the survival of hagfish disproves evolution, yet they represent animals ancestral to all vertebrates.
Furthermore, dinosaur bones are not exhibited as "proof" of evolution: there is no need to "prove" evolution: it is a fact that evolution occurs. Evolutionary theory explains how it occurs, and is supported by a vast amount of evidence from several different branches of science. It has been referred to as the best supported theory in any branch of science. As is the case for any theory in any branch of any science, if someone can come along and provide a better explanation for the evidence which can be tested by the acquisition of more evidence, they are free to do so. I doubt that such a challenge to a theory built by thousands of researchers over several centuries will be challenged by anyone demonstrating such profound ignorance.
Finally, I fail to see the point the author is making in referring to Aepyornis, even though he apparently concurs with the view that birds are dinosaurs. What challenge to evolutionary theory the existence of a big bird in Madagascar poses is beyond me.
Richard Forrest
plesiosaur.com
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