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Newly Discovered Sea Creature Was Once the Largest Animal On Earth
sciencehabit writes Almost half a billion years ago, the largest animal on Earth was a 2-meter-long, helmet-headed sea creature that fed on some of the ocean's tiniest prey. The newly described species is one of the largest arthropods yet discovered, a class of animals that includes spiders and crabs. The well-preserved remains of the multisegmented creature are providing clues about how subsequent arthropods' legs may have evolved from the dozens of stubby flaps used to propel this beast through the water.
2-meter-long, helmet-headed creature....
First post :)
This is the most "Why not Zoidberg" scenario ever.
uuuh.. ehehe.. hey Beavis... ehehe
For a short time I was the youngest person on earth.
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I've often wondered if they can bring back the dodo or the wooly mammoth if we will domesticate them for food, since both were believed to be hunted to extinction by man, they must be delicious.
Keep reading this kind of stories. But I wonder how the scientists come to a conclusion, about newer species and all the evolution that might have happened, and make people believe it... just based on theories.
1. You misunderstand what a theory is.
2. The current theory is testable, based on observations and hypotheses, and will be altered as evidence requires. It's certainly better than "God did it", which is not testable, has no observational basis, and the proponents refuse to alter their beliefs based on evidence to the contrary.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
It was the largest [known] animal on Earth at the time, and therefore also the largest arthropod at the time. Bigger arthropods have existed, but they came later. For example, the modern Japanese spider crab could be considered "bigger" (depending on what you're measuring) because it can have an almost 4 meter leg span. And of course, Wikipedia lists Jaekelopterus (2.5 meters), a sea scorpion, and Arthropleura (2.1 meters), a millipede, but they both lived about 100 million years more recently than the species in TFA.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
That artwork is straight out of the Pokedex, maybe an ice type?
The dodo wasn't hunted to extinction, apparently it tasted pretty awful. Introduced pigs and dogs ate its eggs.
Certainly there have been a *lot* of creatures that were the largest animal on Earth at the time. But there were far, far more that weren't. I would say belonging to that tiny subset of "largest of its time" is a fairly interesting feature, at least where headlines are concerned. From a scientific perspective I'd say the evolutionary insight from the paddles is probably far more interesting, but that's not going to generate nearly as much attention. Lead with the dramatic, and far more people will hear of the interesting.
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People making extraordinary claims need to present extraordinary evidence. There is NO evidence. On the other hand, there IS evidence that the existence of a god would be incompatible with the basic rules of this universe, so no, as an atheist who makes Richard Dawkins look like a wishy-washy (and he really is an agnostic, not an atheist, btw), all the evidence to date points to god not existing.
Show me SOME evidence, some mathematical proof, and we'll talk. Until then, the numbers do not (and can not) add up.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.