OK, wait a sec here. So dinosaurs looked like oversized peafowl, primordial humans grew bigger brains by honey-maxxing, and the art of Graeco-Roman antiquity was multi-colored rather than austerly white???
It´s almost as if Earth history is...I don´t know...gay or something?!
These (admittedly funny) clips show how "Jurassic Park" would have looked like if the "raptors" (really Deinoychus) had been "scientifically accurate". Maybe this wasn´t known back in 1993, but the raptors are still scientifically inaccurate in the new movies of the franchise...thank god! Since dinosaurs apparently looked really cringey in real life, like some kind of big peafowl or something?!
Bring back Boomer science!
It seems this dude is no longer a "moderate". Here, he goes all fringe, claiming that the Olmecs and other high cultures in pre-Columbian America had a selective breeding program featuring archaic species of humans (Neandertals, Denisovans, etc). The result was deformed Homo sapiens, who were venerated as gods or turned into rulers.
Oookay.
But sure, this *can* be empirically tested. Just show us the Neandertal and Denisovan DNA in Olmec skeletons. It has to be at least 50%. Or even 100%.
Won´t happen, of course. Next question!
The demise of the (non-avian) dinosaurs was truly apocalyptic and even worse than we imagined, essentially hell on earth. It seems the Destructrix is a hard task-master...
A recent critique of the so-called Third Way of Evolution (or Third Way). I assumed TWE was a legitimate - albeit controversial - participant in the scientific debates on Neo-Darwinism, but according to the video above, TWE has diplomatic relations with creationists from the Discovery Institute.
The famed "crisis meeting" at the British Royal Society, which is often mentioned by creationists, was actually called by TWE´s founder Denis Noble himself. In other words, it was simply a TWE-adjacent meeting, not some kind of official scientific conference trying to salvage a evolutionary theory in deep trouble. Some fellows from the Discovery Institute were invited to participate.
The critics charge that TWE has no scientific standing. That is, their research (if they even do any) isn´t leading anywhere. The more speculative supporters of TWE believe that the individual organism can willingly chose to evolve! There is currently no evidence for this super-Lamarckian take on things.
Meanwhile, standard evolutionary science has already incorporated other mechanisms besides natural selection working on genetic mutations, for instance epigenetic inheritance, so "narrow Neo-Darwinism" isn´t a thing anymore. This extended synthesis explains things just fine and has lead to huge progress in the medical field (which happens to be Noble´s field).
But note that Sam McKee (the guy on the left in the video) speaks highly of Simon Conway Morris, who is a Christian and believes that evolutionary convergence is an argument for teleology and hence God. Conway Morris recently got a huge grant from the Templeton Foundation. McKee also points to remarkable convergence all across the board in evolution, but never explicitly draws the same conclusion as his collegue. Yet, McKee is a Christian himself.
Maybe there is more to discover here...
Another video on the Homo florensiensis situation. Recent research suggests that the "Hobbit" might not be a dwarfed Homo erectus (sensu stricto) but some kind of pre-human or almost-human. Perhaps an australopith (sensu latto)? I´m not surprised. I had a hunch in this direction already seven years ago. So can we go home now? Second breakfast, guys!
While the hypothesis that our sun has a dark evil twin (Nemesis) which periodically enters our solar system is currently unproven or disproven, alien stars do come close to the solar system on a semi-regular basis. 70,000 years ago, Scholz´s Star came close enough to the Oort cloud to (perhaps) create havock, but we won´t really know for another million years or so. That´s the time it takes for a displaced object from the Oort cloud to reach Earth...
A recent paper proposes that another star, somewhat un-poetically known as HD 7977, made a fly-by already 2.5 million years ago. This was during the time of Homo erectus. It seems the erecti may have been indirectly aided by HD 7977, since it would have been the second brightest object in the night sky, perhaps making it easier to hunt during the wee-hours!
Fascinating. Now, go ye forth and find me Nemesis.
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).
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...
Ground sloths are scarier than Sasquatch! OK, maybe not, but apparently people all over the Americas keep seeing strange large & largely hairy beasts they assume are "ground sloths" (which have been extinct since circa 9000 BC). Or perhaps overhunted by our noble savage forebears?
Speaking of bears...yes, people are either making shit up, or they are simply seeing ursids. The YouTube content-creator (who is really a skeptic) points out that there are trail cameras all over the United States "wilderness", yet no ground sloth has ever been caught on one.
Verdict: killed for food by the Natives over 10,000 years ago. "They are part of our stories". Well, how did they taste? I aint judgin´.
- Oh, the missing link? Yeah, he´s not *quite* missing yet, but he will be soon, trust me, bro!
Ahem...has Homo habilis really been dethroned from his position as transitional form between Australopithecus and Homo erectus (sensu latto)? So now what? Has the missing link gone missing again? Don´t tell the creationists, dude.
New research on the mysterious "human" (?) species known as Homo floresiensis suggests that they didn´t and couldn´t hunt dwarf elephants in their island habitat of Flores 100,000 years ago. Rather, the Hobbit (as this species of Homo is colloquially called) was feeding on carcasses of said pachyderm. The unfortunate proboscids had already been hunted and killed by Komodo dragons! That is, the extremely large monitor lizards known as "Komodo dragons" (this species of reptile is of course still around).
Not sure what to make of this. If Homo floresiensis is an example of insular dwarfism - a shrunken Homo erectus as it were - then the erecti weren´t fully "human" in our sense of the term, still being subject to natural selection (which our species can at least try to escape or transcend). But isn´t there also evidence that Homo erectus were smarter than hitherto assumed? I mean, how on earth did they even *reach* Flores in the first place?
So I don´t know. Something strange is going on here. Either evolution can in extreme cases "go backward" even in a lineage were intelligence is developing. Or the good ol´ Hobbit wasn´t really a human in the first place, but some kind of stray australopith a long way from home...
Both perspectives are pretty mind-boggling. So if Frodo and his 57 half-cousins keep you up at night, pray that the Hobbits (those at Flores) were just monkeys!
Overheard on the interwebs: the Tolkien Estate actually forbade (or tried to forbid) scientists from calling specimens of Homo floresiensis "Hobbits".
So heeeeere we go, chat!
Hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits..hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...hobbits...
But wait a sec. Åke Ohlmark´s Swedish translation of "Lord of the Rings" was unauthorized, so I suppose Swedish scientists could call Homo floresiensis "hober"? Sue my ass, dude!
Difficult to believe, tbh. But who knows?
When will scientists finally put their act together on Neanderthals, I wonder? These pre-historic humans seem very difficult to "pin down"! Is it because of the character of the remains, or is some kind of ideological problematique at work here?
Neanderthals and modern humans may have shared culture 59,000 years ago
 |
| - Yeah, I´m an extinct Giant Swan from Malta, so how does this Hormuz opening help me? |
So apparently the Strait of Hormuz has been opened. For ten days. Because of something in Lebanon. Maybe. Don´t get me wrong, but does anyone even care anymore?
 |
| - Gotta problem with pachyderms, huh huh? |
Why animal rights and veganism doesn´t work. The brains of our ancestors (Homo erectus again) became big thanks to hunting and feasting on primordial elephants...
Without "speciesism", no Man. Deal with it.
