New Footprint Discovery Could Disprove Evolutionary Origins, Says Notable Scientist

Dr. Fazale "Fuz" Rana of science-faith think tank Reasons to Believe recently commented on the newly discovered tetrapod (four-legged vertebrates) footprints found in the Holy Cross Mountains of southeastern Poland by noting that they may disprove evolutionary origins theories, according to "The Christian Post."

"This is a huge discovery," said Rana. "[It's] another example of a supposedly well-established evolutionary story, that has presumable fossil evidence to support it, that is now blown out of the water by a single find."

CNN's exclusive coverage followed the work of paleontologist Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University in Sweden. Ahlberg and his fellow Polish scientists trekked into a Holy Cross Mountains quarry carrying a life-size replica of an early tetrapod, a four-legged fish which more closely resembles a salamander. Their goal was to match the replica's footprints to those found in the quarry.

Ahlberg, who has been working in the field since the mid-1980s and has been published over 20 times in notable science journal "Nature," told CNN, "This is the most important paper that I have ever worked on. In the course of a single afternoon, I found myself revising the entire understanding that I had of my own field of research."

Scientists note that it is the age of the tracks which make their discovery so groundbreaking. Evolutionary science previously placed the appearance of tetrapods on Earth some 375 million years ago. The prints, however, date back over 397 million years.

Despite Creationists' belief that the Earth is only thousands of years old, this discovery could serve to put a dent in evolutionary theory, almost like throwing a "monkey wrench" into the evolution machine, according to Rana.

"Transitional forms are appearing in the fossil record after the appearance of the forms that they presumably evolved into and that simply doesn't make any sense." He also added, "At this point there's no evolutionary explanation in my mind for how land animals appeared."

Rana believes that scientists will soon begin searching for fossilized forms of the animals responsible for the footprints. Either way, Creationists and those who subscribe to Intelligent Design beliefs may have the upper hand for now. After all, as Dr. Rana noted, this find is significant enough to be a "paradigm buster."

©2010 Joshua D. Givens & The Underground Christian E-Magazine

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This article was originally published here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/01/new-footprint-discovery-could-disprove-evolutionary-origins-says-notable-scientist-10856