News to Note, May 31, 2008

1. Study Suggests Canyon Was Created by a Megaflood

A new study of Idaho’s Box Canyon suggests the canyon was formed by “a megaflood—a catastrophic outpouring of massive amounts of water in a relatively short period.”

2. AP Discusses Ties Between Racism and Religion

A prominent Associated Press article takes a look at religion and racism in America—including a profile of an individual whose views on race were transformed through an old AiG book, One Blood.

3. BBC News: “Fossil Reveals Oldest Live Birth”

A fossilized fish—allegedly 380 million years old—is pushing back evolutionists’ estimations of when animals gave birth to live young.

Scientists reporting in Nature describe the fossil specimen of a fish preserved along with an embryo attached by an umbilical cord. Previously, evolutionists thought animals were only able to develop their young inside eggs until millions of years later.

The report adds that the “extremely well-preserved” fish had “a remarkably advanced reproductive biology, similar to modern sharks and rays.”

After the researchers discovered the embryo, they looked at another fossil, unearthed in 1986, and discovered that it, too, contained evidence of the fish’s ability to give live birth. That fossil contained three embryos.

Museum Victoria’s John Long explained, “This is not only the first time ever that a fossil embryo has been found with an umbilical cord, but it is also the oldest known example of any creature giving birth to live young.”

One paleontologist, commenting on the find, called the fish “most primitive”—despite the reported “remarkably advanced” biology of the fish. Hence we have a window into the contradictions of the evolutionist’s mind: since the fossil record “cannot” lie, primitive and modern can be juxtaposed when an otherwise advanced specimen is found deep in the fossil record. This is much the same as the ooh-ing and aah-ing that occurs when an “ancient” fossil is found to be still living today. Notice, though, that the accuracy of the fossil record or the truth of the ever-plastic evolutionary story is never questioned, no matter how astonishing the claims; instead, evolutionists just push the appearance of “modern” features deeper and deeper into the fossil record.

4. Many Flying Reptiles Were Carnivorous

Mighty pterosaurs may have landed and strolled about on land when it was time to dine, reports LiveScience on a study published in PLoS ONE.

5. Researchers Push Convergent Evolution Theory with Similar Plant Groups

It’s another tall tale of “convergent evolution”: two separate plant groups that evolved the same critical building block.

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