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I also find that fascinating -- to have more than one very intelligent species co-existing. Perhaps we actually do if you're not talking others of our genus (since we're the only Homo species these days), as we have not yet fully explored the intelligence of, for example, parrots (is that you...

Funny you brought up hobbits... I was watching the 3-DVD "LOTR" movie all weekend and just finished "Return of the King" earlier tonight. My own speculation goes along the lines of chickened's. It seems to me that these were perhaps an isolated "anomaly" group of people, maybe either an inbred...

lol! Yeah, that poor bunch of "possible new human species" fossils is freshly buried again...under our pages of posts about other stuff.

I agree, chickened, that it's not a bad thing if discussions can remain civil. My thought was that it would be best to avoid arguments, which is usually what happens when creationism and science meet up. The main problem is that we are not on the same page in what a "theory" actually is. The...

Excellent insights, AE. The Jews are descended from Semitic peoples, and their texts and scriptures are a conglomerate of the related ancient Semitic polytheistic religions of their ancestries, which is why there are so many contradictions in the first chapter of their Tanakh (scripture)...

Well, it was luck, in this case. The cave paintings at Lascaux cave were discovered entirely by accident, by a dog (and its pet teenagers). http://www.thinkfinity.org/2011-09-12_Lascaux-cave-paintings As for developing technologies so fast in such a short time.... once a break-through is made...

AquaEyes, Yeah -- I was not thinking about chimps but the general split of the mainline ape ancestors that became gorillas, orangs... You're right. Chimps are our closest "kin," as is often noted! Neandertals had greater overall body mass than modern humans, and their skull size also...

chickened, By "pure luck" I meant that it was lucky we found them at all. But also that the deep cave and the atmospheric conditions there, and of course their isolation (so as not to be touched or disturbed) preserved the pigments that were used. You may well be right that, at least in some...

I wouldn't say quite that we evolved from apes, but that modern apes and humans evolved from a common/shared ape-like ancestor that we split off from tens of millions of years ago. Many primatologists group humans -- including us and the now-extinct neanderthals (which some consider to be a...

Civilization -- cities and engineered works built to last -- doesn't seem to have occured until roughly 6,000-8,000 years ago, with the advent of organized agriculture. Once humans (and modern humans have existed for over 30,000 years) could grow and long-term store food, rather than be...

Yup. Even saltwater fish have a limit to their ability to filter out harmful mineral salts. However, there are some species of bacteria that can survive in very salty water and at temperatures too high for other forms of life to exist in. Also, there are some species of crustacean that can...

chickened, The Oregon alkalai flats you mentioned are the deposits that remained after the evaporation of a vast, shallow inland sea that covered a large area of what is now the continental U.S. Fish fossils remain. I think you're talking about the Great Basin, which is the remains of what is...

Exactly, AE. As I said, it's not science that is faulty -- science is a neutral, objective METHODOLOGY. It's PEOPLE who manipulate science, using false premises and then exploiting "scientific approach" to arrive at a false conclusion that fits their agenda and beliefs. I originally said that...

AquaEyes, Excellent explanation of the difference between "law" and "theory." Too many people interpret "theory" as "unproven guess." That is not science's interpretation of the meaning, for sure. Also, I believe there is a mistaken notion tha science is some kind of religion. It's not. It is...

chickened wrote: That is possible but the months of darkness with our current seasons would not allow tropical vegetation like trees. Right now the only thing living above the arctic circle is lichen tht I know of. There are theories I have heard of that claIm if the earth's axis was different...

I think that the term "tropical" means that area around the Earth's equator. We associate that with lush jungle vegetation that needs hot climate to live, but over time it seems that the term "tropical" has come to mean any plant/animal life that comes from a hot or warm climate - not just the...

AquaEyes, Evolution is Tao.

Oh yeah... there are so many hit-over-the-head signs that there has been vast climate change on Earth over the billions of years. All of the oil they drill for in Alaska is the remains of plantlife that flourished in the arctic long ago.

Yup. Hair is keratin -- a protein -- and the hollow shafts of polar bear hairs are layers of cellophanelike, shiny stuff that reflects light. It's not really white; it has no pigment. A lot of mutations that are highly successful toward genetic survival, are so because they confer multiple...

Nature says: Waste not, want not. If certain organs and functions are not being used by an organism, when it moves from its original habitat to a new one, then those organs and functions gradually disappear and the energy goes toward a function that is more pragmatic for the environment int...