by Richard William Nelson | Feb 4, 2013
Paleontologist Pascal Godefroit of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium published a paper in Nature in January, challenging the current understanding of “the first bird.” In Liaoning Province of north-east China, Godefroit collaborated with a research team from the Jilin University Geological Museum, China, and found fossil evidence challenging the Archaeopteryx as “the first bird.” Archaeopteryx means the “ancient wing.”
Nature published their paper entitled “Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China,” Godefroit stated –
“These specimens have challenged the pivotal position of Archaeopteryx in bird phylogeny.”
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by Richard William Nelson | Jan 24, 2013
Modern formulations of the hydrothermal‑vent origin‑of‑life concepts began in 1989 with a publication by British geologist Michael Russell. The publication “In vitro growth of iron sulfide chimneys: possible culture chambers for origin-of-life experiments” seemingly cracked an evolution mystery.
Published in Terra Nova, Russell outlines a pathway that naturally progresses from chemistry to biology – the origin of life. Russell’s concept was groundbreaking. In essence, Russell envisioned –
“Life is what happens when Earth’s geochemistry progresses into organized chemistry.”
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by Richard William Nelson | Dec 20, 2012
Charles Darwin‘s story of how the giraffe got its long neck is one of the most popular and widely-told stories in the history of evolution. At the center of the giraffe evolution story is the African okapi (pictured left).
The story begins with Darwin speculating on a transitional link. In The Origin of Species, Darwin wrote –
“It seems to me almost certain that an ordinary hoofed quadruped might be converted into a giraffe.”
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by Richard William Nelson | Dec 4, 2012
Africa’s majestically bizarre leaf-eating giraffe once served as an elite status symbol. Even from early civilizations, images of the giraffe are etched and sketched into the rock all over Africa. Puzzling over how the giraffe got its long neck and gentle behavior, the giraffe was the prize of Kings.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar brought the first giraffe into Europe. Seeming to blend the characteristics of the camel and leopard, the Romans named the giraffe a “cameleopard.” Caesar presented giraffes to lions in Roman arenas to shred and shock audiences.
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by Richard William Nelson | Nov 20, 2012
In the beginning, the transition from physics and chemistry to biology laid the foundation for Earth’s vast biosphere. In 1794, Erasmus Darwin (pictured left), Charles’s grandfather, entered the origin of life fray with his popular book Zoonomia, noting –
“Would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament?”
Amazingly, while every known early culture recorded an explanation of the origin of life, it remains one of modern science’s most profound mysteries. As Charles Darwin notes in The Origin of Species in 1859 –
“It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life. Who can explain what is the essence of the attraction of gravity?”
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Paleontologist Pascal Godefroit of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium published a paper in Nature in January, challenging the current understanding of “the first bird.” In Liaoning Province of north-east China, Godefroit collaborated with a research team from the Jilin University Geological Museum, China, and found fossil evidence challenging the Archaeopteryx as “the first bird.” Archaeopteryx means the “ancient wing.”
Modern formulations of the 
Charles Darwin
Africa’s majestically bizarre leaf-eating giraffe once served as an elite status symbol. Even from early civilizations, images of the giraffe are etched and sketched into the rock all over Africa. Puzzling over how the giraffe got its long neck and gentle behavior, the giraffe was the prize of Kings.
