The fossil of Jurassic lizard Eichstaettisaurus.
Image credit: Jorge Herrera Flores
With so many science papers casually and unintentionally refuting creationism just by revealing the facts, most weeks are bad weeks for creationists and their cults, but this week has been worse than most and it's only half done!
On top of the news of how environmental changes have been shown to influence evolution, just as the Theory of Evolution explains, we now have a paper which sheds more light on the evolution of the squamates (i.e. cold-blooded vertebrates with scales - snakes and lizards) and which shows the scientists involved have no doubts about the TOE being the grand unifying theory in biology that makes best sense of the data.
However, the research team led by Dr Arnau Bolet, palaeontologist at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the University of Bristol, has shown that, although Jurassic squamate fossils are rare, it is possible to detect the more advanced features found in modern species in them, showing that the major phases of evolutionary diversification had occurred by then.
As the Bristol University press release accompanying the team's open access published paper in the online journal, eLife, explains:
The few Jurassic squamates do not show primitive morphologies as would be expected, but they relate directly to the diverse modern groups. “Instead of finding a suite of generalized lizards on the stem of the squamate tree, what we found in the Jurassic were the first representatives of many modern groups, showing advanced morphological features”, says Arnau Bolet, lead author of the article.Even though Jurassic squamates are rare, reconstructed evolutionary trees show that all the main specializations of squamates evolved then, and it’s possible to distinguish adaptations of geckoes, iguanas, skinks, worm lizards, and snakes some 50 million years earlier than had been thought. But how could the scarce Jurassic fossils suggest an early burst in evolution? The key is in their anatomy.
Michael J. Benton, co-author
School of Earth Sciences
University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
The observed times of divergence, morphospace plots and evolutionary rates, all suggest that the Jurassic was a time of innovation in squamate evolution, during which the bases of the success of the group were established. According to these results, the apparent sudden increase in diversity observed in the Cretaceous could be related to an improved fossil record, capable of recording a larger number of species, or to a burst of origins of new species related to the new kinds of forests and insects.
The Squamata is the largest order of reptiles, including lizards, snakes and worm lizards. Squamates are all cold-blooded, and their skins are covered by horny scales. They are key parts of modern terrestrial faunas, especially in warmer climates, with an astonishing diversity of more than 10,000 species. However, understanding the evolutionary paths that forged their success are still poorly understood.Instead of finding a suite of generalized lizards on the stem of the squamate tree, what we found in the Jurassic were the first representatives of many modern groups, showing advanced morphological features.
Arnau Bolet, lead author
Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
And School of Earth Sciences
University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Establishing the timing and mode of radiation of squamates is key for not only understanding the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in the Mesozoic, but also for deciphering how the group achieved an astonishing diversity of more than 10,000 species, only rivalled by birds among tetrapods.
Copyright: © 2022 The authors. Published by eLifeOpen access
AbstractI doubt any creationists have had the courage to read this far, but if they have, they might like to note the eLife editor's evaluation:
The squamates (lizards, snakes, and relatives) today comprise more than 10,000 species, and yet their sister group, the Rhynchocephalia, is represented by a single species today, the tuatara. The explosion in squamate diversity has been tracked back to the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, 100 million years ago (Ma), the time when flowering plants began their takeover of terrestrial ecosystems, associated with diversification of coevolving insects and insect-eating predators such as lizards, birds, and mammals. Squamates arose much earlier, but their long pre-Cretaceous history of some 150 million years (Myr) is documented by sparse fossils. Here, we provide evidence for an initial radiation of squamate morphology in the Middle and Late Jurassic (174–145 Ma), and show that they established their key ecological roles much earlier than had been assumed, and they have not changed them much since.
Arnau Bolet, Thomas L Stubbs, Jorge A Herrera-Flores, Michael J Benton
The Jurassic rise of squamates as supported by lepidosaur disparity and evolutionary rates
eLife 2022;11:e66511 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.66511
Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
Editor's evaluationNot only does this paper illustrate just how central the TOE is to interpreting the fossil record, but the editor of the journal in which it is published calls it "an evaluation of macroevolutionary history".
This article presents an evaluation of the macroevolutionary history of squamates (lizards, snakes, and relatives) and is relevant to evolutionary biologists and paleontologists interested in this group. The ‘early burst’ of disparity in squamates demonstrates that squamates established their morphospace range much earlier than had been assumed, and the long-term stable morphospace occupation ever since. [My emphasis]
No doubt these examples of macroevolution will be completely ignored by creationists desperate to maintain the ludicrous belief that macro-and micro-evolution are somehow different processes and that the latter is possible but some mysterious process prevents the former from happening.
Just another in a long list of biology research papers exposing the facts that casually refute creationism without any effort or intent on the part of the authors.
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