Surprise fossil discoveries push back the evolution of complex animals

 

Artist’s reconstruction of the ancient ocean ecosystem preserved in the Jiangchuan biota. Image courtesy of Xiaodong Wang.

Joel Kontinen

Some evolutionists believe that complex life on earth began way before the Cambrian explosion, which for Darwinists has been a mystery.  Can complex life begin without intelligence?

And the time frame for these events is very much wrong.

A huge and beautifully preserved suite of fossils discovered in China has cast doubt on the idea that complex life flourished dramatically during a rapid burst of evolution known as the Cambrian explosion.

This event, spanning roughly 541 million to 513 million years ago, is when most of the animal groups alive today are thought to have first appeared, along with a bizarre array of evolutionary experiments that later went extinct.

Source:

James Woodford 2026 Surprise fossil discoveries push back the evolution of complex animals | New Scientist 2 April 

Intelligent Communication Between Cells: Exosomes and Ectosomes

Exosomes (above) are extracellular vesicles that communicate with ectosomes. Image courtesy of miguelferig, Public Domain.




Joel Kontinen

Exosomes and ectosomes are tiny extracellular vesicles that all cells produce. Exosomes measure 50–150 nm and ectosomes 100–500 nm.

Previously, researchers assumed that both vesicles were remnants of dead cells, but a recent paper published in the journal Current Biology shows that they were wrong.

Exosomes and ectosomes can travel relatively long distances, and exosomes can deliver cargoes that include non-coding RNAs and DNA sequences to other cells.

Scientists are just beginning to learn about their function, but they already know that these vesicles

“navigate through extracellular fluid for varying times and distances. Subsequently, they interact with recognized target cells and undergo fusion with endocytic or plasma membranes, followed by integration of vesicle membranes into their fusion membranes and discharge of luminal cargoes into the cytosol, resulting in changes to cellular physiology. After fusion, exosome/ectosome components can be reassembled in new vesicles that are then recycled to other cells, activating effector networks.”

Looks like a considerable infusion of intelligence is needed to bring this about. But, then, practically everything in our cells requires intelligence.

In other words, “nothing about molecular machines makes sense without intelligent design.”

We also have two tiny postmen in our cells, i.e. dynein and kinesin, that carry cargo to specific addresses within cells.

Our cells are miniature cities running at 100 percent efficiency, and they produce 100,000 nanomachines per hour.

Source:

Meldolesi, Jacopo. 2018. Exosomes and Ectosomes in Intercellular Communication. Current Biology 28, R435–R444 (23 April).

"Reason" vs. Intelligence

This genetic software speaks of intelligence. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Recently, American atheists had their very religious “Reason Rally” in Washington D.C.

What was missing from their agenda was a focus on evidence and intelligence. Instead, it was all about a philosophical quasi-religious view (secular humanism) and human reasoning based on an approach that was popular in the 19th century.

It is badly outdated, however.

According to a post on Evolution News and Views:

“The past 60 years of biology research have uncovered that life is fundamentally based upon:
· A vast amount of complex and specified information encoded in a biochemical language;
· A computer-like system of commands and codes that processes the information.
· Molecular machines and multi-machine systems.

But where in our experience do things like language, complex and specified information, programming code, or machines come from? They have one and only one known source: intelligence.”

The problem with Darwinian evolution – the philosophy behind the Reason Rally - is that it is not compatible with what we know from modern discoveries in biology.

Source:

Revisiting the Positive Case for Intelligent Design. Evolution News and Views. 20 April 2012.

Elephants can distinguish between three human languages

Elephants are surprisingly clever. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Elephants roaming the savannahs in the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya may be able to distinguish between three languages. This is the take-home message of a recent British study. BBC reports on tests conducted by a research team from the University of Sussex, UK, who drove around the park on the outskirts of Mount Kilimanjaro in a Land Rover, observing elephant behaviour.

The British researchers discovered that old female elephants were able ”to learn the identity of at least 100 other individual elephants by voice”.

The researchers also played recordings in three different languages (Maa, Kamba and English) on a loudspeaker atop their Land Rover. They noticed clear differences in how the elephants reacted to these languages. When the elephants heard someone speaking Maa, the language of the Maasai, they became nervous probably because the Maasai occasionally kill elephants in order to protect their herds. Then, when they heard the Kampa language, they were less nervous. On hearing English, the elephants stayed calm.

The elephants obviously know that English-speaking tourists only take photos. They seem to realise that the era of Ernest Hemingway and other rifle-toting white hunters is past and gone.

BBC also mentioned experiments conducted in Japan that suggest that elephants are good at mathematics.

According to Darwinists, chimpanzees should be much more intelligent than other land animals or birds. However, several recent experiments suggest that both elephants and crows beat chimps in tasks needing innovation.

These and other observations do not support assumptions based on Darwinian evolution.

At least some elephants are clever painters as well. See a video clip of an Asian elephant painting the portrait of – yes, a fellow elephant:




Source:

Luck-Baker. Andrew. 2010. Inside the Elephant mind. BBC News (17 February) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8518831.stm