Extreme Plant Defies Hot Volcanic Environment

Campylopus pyriformis. Image courtesy of Hermann Schachner, public domain.





Joel Kontinen

When it comes to defying heat, the dwarf swan-neck moss (Campylopus pyriformis) is the plant kingdom’s extreme champion.

Introduced to us in a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, it can thrive in a volcanic environment where the temperature rises to 72°C.

Some animals and plants can survive in almost impossible conditions.

But as far as we know, only on Earth.

This reminds us of both Creation and the Fall.

Source:

Ceurstemont, Sandrine. 2017. Extreme plants thrive at 72°C in New Zealand’s hot volcanic soil. New Scientist (9 June).

Dino-Era Mushroom’s Fossilisation Inspires Darwinian Just-So Story

A somewhat younger mushroom, presumably. Image by an unknown artist, public domain.





Joel Kontinen

How do you preserve a mushroom for 115 million years? After all, they tend to disintegrate in just a few days.

Live Science attempts to give us an explanation: The poor mushroom fell into a river and was fossilised.

This is followed by more storytelling:

“After the mushroom fell into the river, it floated into a salty lagoon and sank to the bottom, where fine sediments began to cover it. Over time, the mushroom mineralized, and its tissues were replaced with pyrite, a mineral also known as fool's gold. Later, the pyrite transformed into the mineral goethite.”

Discovered in Brazil's Crato Formation, the mushroom is a mere 5 centimetres (2 inches) tall. Named Gondwanagaricites magnificus, it is the oldest known mushroom fossil.

Fossilisation is a very tricky business. It has to happen extremely fast.

The Flood of Noah’s days would have provided excellent conditions for preserving creatures of all shapes and sizes.

Source:

Geggel, Laura. 2017. World's Oldest Fossilized Mushroom Sprouted 115 Million Years Ago. Live Science (7 June).

Noah’s Flood: There Is Still Enough Water Beneath Our Feet to Flood the Entire Planet

Blue planet.




Joel Kontinen

Sceptics should probably stop questioning the source of the water that covered our entire planet during Noah’s days.

In 2014, research suggested that enormous amounts of water are hidden right beneath our feet, trapped in a mineral called ringwoodite.

A new paper published in the journal Science Advances confirms this discovery and proposes that there is almost as much water 410 to 660 kilometres beneath us than there is in the oceans.

There’s much water beneath our feet. Image courtesy of Jasperox, Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).

And the water has been there for aeons: A recent study suggested that Earth makes its own water.

Modern science is finally catching up with Genesis: We now know that our extremely unique blue planet had water from the very beginning.

There’s watery evidence of Noah’s flood in many places, for instance under the Andes, in arid Northern Kenya and probably also in Greenland.

Source:

Coghlan, Andy. 2017. There’s as much water in Earth’s mantle as in all the oceans. New Scientist (7 June).

Death of a Darwinian Icon: T. Rex Did Not Have Feathers, Fossil Evidence Suggests

No feathers.





Joel Kontinen

Some museums and textbooks (as well as Wikipedia, of course) have put feathers on T. rex although there is no fossil evidence that these huge reptiles ever sported them.

Recently, Dr Phil Bell (University of New England, Australia) and colleagues published a paper in the journal Biology Letters, examining skin impressions from a famous T. rex skeleton known as Wyrex.

They found no evidence of feathers.

In contrast, they found “scaly reptilian-like skin.”

However, belief in feathered dinosaurs will probably not become extinct in the very near future. Some experts have already come up with excuses for why this T. rex lacks the fluffiness they expected to see.

The Darwinian community has had to face serious problems in recent years with the discovery of Arctic dinosaurs, as well as soft tissue (that has almost become the norm) and radiocarbon (C-14) in dinosaur bone, which in effect falsifies belief in millions of years.

In addition, we have learnt that some dinosaur species never even existed.

Source:

Briggs, Helen. 2017. Study casts doubt on the idea of 'big fluffy T. rex' BBC News (7 June).

Dino-Era Tree’s Mystery: Reaching towards the Equator

Cook pines (Araucaria columnaris). Image courtesy of Fourrure, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).






Joel Kontinen

Researchers have recently learnt of, though not necessarily solved, new mysteries about trees. Who could have thought that they tend to sleep at night?

An older discovery is that they have self-assembling solar panels.

A recent paper published in the journal Ecology looks at a peculiar trait in Cook pines (Araucaria columnaris). On average, they tilt by 8.55 degrees, which happens to be twice as much as the Leaning Tower of Pisa does.

What is more, of the 256 Cook pines examined, all tilted towards the Equator.

They might do so to get more sunlight.

Like the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis), other Araucaria lived during the (assumed) heydays of the dinosaurs.

Researchers have found pollen grains of Araucaria araucana or the monkey puzzle tree below the ice cover in Antarctica, suggesting that Noah’s Flood left them there some 4,500 years ago.

Flowers also have some amazing traits. Blue leaves help them get more energy from the sun.

Source:

Malhotra, Richa. 2017. The strange Cook pine trees that always lean towards the equator. New Scientist (2 June).

Wishful Thinking: Life on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Image courtesy of NASA.





Joel Kontinen

“If life can thrive on Earth’s ocean floors, feeding on the chemicals that gush from the rocks, why not on Europa too?” New Scientist asked recently.

The assumption behind this question is that given the chance, life will appear spontaneously almost anywhere.

However, there is no evidence for this and all origin of life hypotheses have turned out to be utter failures.

Life needs more than just water.

Europa obviously has a liquid ocean beneath its arid surface and naturalists are pinning their hopes on it.

But life needs design and design needs information. They are both non-material entities.

What makes the case even worse for their hopes is that Europa looks far too young to fit into a 4.5 billion- year- old solar system.

Source:

Battersby, Stephen. 2017. Send an ear: Listening for sounds of life in the solar system. New Scientist (31 May).

High Time to Distrust Peer Review: Dog Sits on the Editorial Board of 7 Journals

A dog like this sits on the editorial board of seven medical journals. Image courtesy of Andrejco, public domain.





Joel Kontinen

Dr. Olivia Doll sits on the editorial board of seven medical journals.

Her CV says that she holds a degree from Subiaco College of Veterinary Science, where she currently works as senior lecturer and is an expert in canine massage. It also lists her past work at Shenton Park Institute for Canine Refuge Studies.

Dr. Olivia Doll happens to be a Staffordshire terrier named Ollie. The Shenton Park Institute is a code term for a dog shelter.

The five-year-old terrier is owned by Professor Mike Daube. He invented Dr. Doll’s credentials in an attempt to examine how carefully medical journals vet their reviewers.

Not very carefully, obviously.

None of the journals suspected anything fishy about this reviewer. She was even offered the position of associate editor of the Global Journal of Addiction and Rehabilitation Medicine.

Peer review and proper scientific conduct seem to be in a crisis. Journals have accepted bogus papers, and scientific misconduct thrives in the Darwinian world.

Source:

Ghose, Tia. 2017. Dog 'Scientist' Sits on Editorial Board of Medical Journals. Live Science (31 May).