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300 Million Year Old Fossil Fish Likely Had Color Vision
westlake writes Nature is reporting the discovery of mineralized rods and cones in a 300-million-year-old fossil fish found in Kansas. The soft tissues of the eye and brain decay rapidly after death, within 64 days and 11 days, respectively, and are almost never preserved in the fossil record — making this the first discovery of fossil rods and cones in general and the first evidence for color vision in a fossilized vertebrate eye.
...but was it 4K?
God created the earth and its inhabitants - and therefore rods and cones - somewhere less than 10 000 years ago. Please, please keep this unscientific tripe off Slashdot - after all, all who post here are rational thinkers .... aren't we?
Wait a minute. First your post claims that a belief in higher power has helped previous generations persevere through terrible trial and adversity, thus preserving society and human kind. Furthermore, this has had an impact on our genetic pool, leaving us with a population that (theoretically) carries a gene that makes them prone to persevere through difficult times, while holding onto a belief in a higher power.
The you advocate eliminating this 'survivor gene.' simply because it allows someone to survive by applying flawed logic?
I'd like to borrow your scrying bowl and chicken blood, so I to can see this marvelous future, where the human race is never again presented with difficult times, where basic survival is never tenuous at best, and even the most flaccid of individuals may survive and prosper.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Too bad all the content was black and white back then.
Humans, for good ecological reasons, seem to want to create a "supreme being".
Humans are social creature who identify with their community, and create metaphors for their political and/or social and/or natural context. It doesn't matter what a metaphor is, only what it represents.
Upon first witnessing the glory and splendor of the Universe, they casually remarked, "It'll have to go."
OK, early fish could see in colors. And clearly modern birds (and their dino ancestors) can see in color. There is strong observal evidence that amphibians can see in color too. So just how is it that virtually all mammals supposedly lost the ability to see in color (which itself is hard for me to buy) and yet then the apes evolved the ability to see in color again and they did it with the same rod and code mechanism that was used in the primitive fish. I'm hard pressed to believe that there is an advantage for colorblindness that would have been selected for in the earliest mammals.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Man, science is getting weird!
OK, early fish could see in colors. And clearly modern birds (and their dino ancestors) can see in color
The mineralized rods and cones in this fossil fish are the first to be found in any vertebrate fossil. The argument for color vision in dinosaurs is more or less based on the theory that if a sexually attractive feather-like structure was colored, a dino must have seen it in color.
There have been extraordinary advances in our understanding of science and technology in just the last few hundred years. We can now do something effective about disease, drought, and the like. It's now counterproductive to expend the energy on worshiping an extreme being in hopes that they will resolve these things -- that energy would be better spent addressing the problem with science or engineering.
Unfortunately, religion brings with it irrational behavior that disrupts society. Consider the Crusades or, more recently, radical Islam killing "non-believers" (well, not really NON believers, believers in a slightly different mystical entity). Or, consider the bigotry justified by religion that is widespread in the United States.
Nothing prevents people from helping others in their society who are needy even though neither themselves or those they are helping believe in a deity.
IMHO, religion is now largely superfluous and, on the balance, does more harm than good. Unfortunately, humans evolve slowly so the genetic propensity to follow a religion will probably outlast mankind. However, I wish I could see the look on the face of the last human as they realize they are going to die and their imaginary god isn't going to do a thing about it.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading