I think I linked to this before, but I can´t find it anymore. This must be the smartest guy in the world, I mean, he manages to debunk Hinduism and Buddhism (all of it) in little under five minutes. Sure wonder how the "dharmic" religions (which are much older than Protestantism) will survive this onslaught? Note that "Testify" can´t even tell the difference between Brahman and Brahma, LOL.
So I asked ChatGPT (the free version) about "Elvis taxa" and "zombie taxa"...
What are Elvis taxa and zombie taxa?
These are two colorful terms used in biology and paleontology to describe different kinds of "apparent resurrections." They're informal rather than formal taxonomic categories, but they're widely understood.
As we discussed, a Lazarus taxon is a species or lineage that was believed extinct but is later found to have survived.
Examples include:
The species never actually disappeared—it was simply overlooked.
An Elvis taxon is different.
The name refers jokingly to Elvis Presley impersonators.
An Elvis taxon is:
The extinct organism has not returned.
Instead, evolution has independently produced something very similar.
Imagine a trilobite species goes extinct.
Ten million years later another arthropod evolves that looks remarkably like that trilobite.
It isn't the same species or even necessarily closely related—it merely resembles it.
That resemblance makes it an Elvis taxon.
Paleontologists have suggested Elvis taxa among:
In these groups, shell shape can evolve repeatedly under similar environmental pressures.
A zombie taxon is something else again.
It is a fossil or specimen that appears much younger than it really is because it has been reworked.
For example:
Someone finds it in the younger rocks and initially thinks:
"Dinosaurs survived much longer than we thought!"
But they did not.
The fossil itself is old—it has merely been redeposited.
It is therefore a zombie taxon.
They can temporarily produce spectacular but false claims, such as:
Usually careful geological analysis shows the fossils were reworked from older deposits.
Paleontology has accumulated several humorous terms:
Some authors also mention "ghost lineages," though this is a different concept. A ghost lineage is an inferred evolutionary lineage that must have existed because of phylogenetic evidence, even though fossils from that interval have not yet been found.
| Term | What happened? | Organism actually survived? |
|---|---|---|
| Lazarus taxon | Survived unnoticed and was rediscovered | Yes |
| Elvis taxon | A different species evolved to resemble the extinct one | No |
| Zombie taxon | An old fossil was reworked into younger rocks | No |
| Ghost lineage | Evolution predicts the lineage existed despite a gap in the fossil record | Unknown (it's an inference about missing fossils rather than survival) |
Together, these concepts remind us that the fossil record can be misleading in different ways. A surprising "reappearance" may represent a genuine rediscovery (Lazarus), convergent evolution (Elvis), geological redeposition (Zombie), or simply an incomplete fossil record (ghost lineage).
Fun fact: one nation in Central America actually is a dictatorship. And it aint El Salvador...
Overheard on the internets: scientists just disconfirmed some old experiment from the 1990´s which supposedly proved the existence of dark matter particles. What did I tell you, chat...
Dark matter aint real. And the light shineth in the darkness.
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| Credit: PHGCOM |
Det här reagerade jag på redan för några år sedan, när jag bytte ut min gamla mobil just för att Bank-ID inte längre fungerade på enheten, och så vidare. "Vad fan får jag för pengarna?"
Recently, I got sick and tired of this dude, but...I can´t help linking to this video. "Dan Dedunking" argues that the Smithsonian Institute did find giant skeletons, but subsequently covered them up for...racist reasons! In other words, Dan takes the Woke argument against Atlantis / alternative history ("they are objectively White supremacist") and uses it against the Woke establishment. There! Egg in face.
For a similar perspective, see my old blog post below (unfortunately, the link to the "Incredible History" channel is dead).
I don´t know. I long suspected that the stories of Giants and Dwarfs might have *some* truth to them, so maybe somebody should try and locate those damn bones...
