[Taxacom] more science nonsense

[Stephen Thorpe]

 Hold on there one minute John!On the scale of "science nonsense", this might not even qualify! The key word is "suggests". The fossil does demonstrate that the oldest and most primitive *known* member of the group is from the Southern Hemisphere, so that it *evidence* that the group evolved there. It is the simplest explanation of the known facts, that's all. Otherwise, you have to posit the existence of unknown like fossils in the Northern Hemisphere, for which there is currently no evidence, and consider it chance that the first such fossil just happened to be found in the Southern Hemisphere. Sure, that it *possible*, but nobody seems to be saying that a Southern Hemisphere origin it is 100% certain, just that it is suggested by the new evidence.Stephen
    On Wednesday, 2 October 2019, 03:04:40 am UTC, John Grehan via Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:  
 
 Never ceases to amaze me. In a recent paper the following assertion:

"All previously known Paleocene records of pelagornithids stem from the
Northern Hemisphere, but as the oldest and phylogenetically most basal
representative,
Protodontopteryx suggests that these birds actually evolved in the Southern
Hemisphere."

Apart from the  center of origin illusion, there never has been any
empirical demonstration that the location of the oldest fossil corresponds
to the oldest occupied area for a taxon. But still they keep saying it as
if it were real.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335873378_Oldest_smallest_and_phylogenetically_most_basal_pelagornithid_from_the_early_Paleocene_of_New_Zealand_sheds_light_on_the_evolutionary_history_of_the_largest_flying_birds


John Grehan
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