Parasites of morphotype I, found in the vertebrate coprolite.
The vertebrate coprolite with parasites found in the Huai Nam Aun locality (Upper Triassic).
Creationists apologists, in a desperate effort to explain why a supposedly omnibenevolent designer would design so many nasty little parasites, whose sole purpose appears to be to increase the suffering in the world, find solace in the Bible myth of 'The Fall' which apparently allowed 'sin', over which their reputedly omnipotent deity is powerless, to enter the world and begin creating parasites.
Forgetting for a moment that several of these parasites have been cited by creationism's favourite 'creation scientist', Michael J Behe, as examples of irreducibly complex (therefore made by God [sic]) organisms. This means that the entire history of parasites must be shoe-horned into the last 8-10 thousand years or so, or however many thousands of years ago the convenience of the argument needs to place this 'Fall'.
And, of course, since 'The Fall' involved a parentless couple, there could not have been parasites before there were humans on Earth - so the logic of the argument dictates.
It must set up some awful cognitive dissonance in creation cult victims to discover, not only that Triassic animals suffer from parasites, but parasitic nematodes and probably other intestinal parasites existed some 200 million years before they think Earth and humans were created.
Of course, this is just another example of the yawning gap between what the creation cult teaches its scientifically illiterate dupes, and the real history of the Universe and life on Earth.
The discovery of the eggs of parasitic nematodes in the fossil remains of ancient faeces or coprolite, was made by Thanit Nonsrirach of Mahasarakham University, Thailand, and colleagues. The coprolite is from the Upper Triassic Huai Hin Lat Formation in Northern Thailand, which formed in shallow, low-energy brackish or fresh water about 200 million years ago.
The team's findings are published, open access, in PLOS ONE.
As information supplied by PLOS explains:
Fossilized feces preserve evidence of ancient parasites that infected an aquatic predator over 200 million years ago, according to a study published August 9, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Thanit Nonsrirach of Mahasarakham University, Thailand and colleagues.
Parasites are a common and important component of ecosystems, but ancient parasites are difficult to study due to a poor fossil record. Parasites often inhabit the soft tissues of their host, which rarely preserve as fossils. There are, however, cases where traces of parasites can be identified within fossilized feces (coprolites). In this study, Nonsrirach and colleagues describe evidence of parasites in a Late Triassic coprolite from the Huai Hin Lat Formation of Thailand, which is over 200 million years old.
The coprolite is cylindrical in shape and over 7cm long. Based on its shape and contents, the researchers suggest it was likely produced by some species of phytosaur, crocodile-like predators which are also known from this fossil locality. Microscopic analysis of thin sections of the coprolite revealed six small, round, organic structures between 50-150 micrometers long. One of these, an oval-shaped structure with a thick shell, is identified as the egg of a parasitic nematode worm, while the others appear to represent additional worm eggs or protozoan cysts of unclear identity.
This is the first record of parasites in a terrestrial vertebrate host from the Late Triassic of Asia, and a rare glimpse into the life of an ancient animal that was apparently infected by multiple parasitic species. This discovery also adds to the few known examples of nematode eggs preserved within the coprolites of Mesozoic animals. These findings are therefore a significant contribution to scientific understanding of the distribution and ecology of parasites of the distant past. The authors add: "Coprolite is a significant paleontological treasure trove, containing several undiscovered fossils and expanding our understanding of ancient ecosystems and food chains."
Fig 1. The Huai Nam Aun outcrop in the Huai Hin Lat formation of Thailand
Fig 4. Parasite of morphotype II, found in the vertebrate coprolite.
Fig 5. Parasite of morphotype III, found in the vertebrate coprolite.
Fig 6. Parasites of morphotype IV, found in the vertebrate coprolite.
Fig 7. Parasite of morphotype V, found in the vertebrate coprolite.
- The scientists are lying.
- The dating methods are all wrong by several orders of magnitude, so 4000 years can look like 200 million.
- The scientists, in this case from a Buddhist cultural background, all hate God and want to destroy our faith in the Bible and Jesus.
- Satan planted the fossils to mislead us.
- "I don't understand this, therefore 'God did it!'".
Natural evil and the suffering, death, and extinctions of animals is vastly older than Humanity. See the book, What Bugged the Dinosaurs. This book is about Paleopathology which is the suffering of animals and humans in ancient, prehistoric times. In this case it's about how Dinosaurs suffered from parasites and diseases during the Cretaceous period, Mesozoic Era. There'd evidence of cancer, tooth decay, internal worms, ticks, mosquitoes, and broken bones suffered by Dinosaurs. And as everyone knows or should know, many Dinosaurs suffered from eachother by killing and eating eachother, and there were massive prehistoric Crocodilians which killed and ate Dinosaurs. We're talking 40 to 50 foot long Crocodilians which were every bit as terrifying as Tyrannosaurus. Numerous venomous animals also abounded during the Mesozoic Era such as Scorpions, spiders, and centipedes. The Dinosaurs may have sometimes felt the stings of these scorpions.
ReplyDeleteThe world was always the dangerous place that's so familiar to us. Tyrannosaurus was never a peaceful herbivore until Adam and Eve ate the forbidden apple. Tyrannosaurus was always the dangerous meat eater since it appeared on earth 80 million years ago and until it became extinct 65 million years ago. Kent Hovind and his Creationism Museum is fake science, fake history, and fake reality. Does he actually believe in his Creationism nonsense, or is he a charlatan doing it to make money off of ignorant people who don't know any better? Kent Hovind is either a delusional person or a conscious charlatan, and I dont know which one he is.
The incidence of disease, tooth decay, and parasites increases as time passed into the Tertiary period with the age of Mammals. The more physically complex and the more mentally complex life forms became the more things existed that could go wrong and thus, the more suffering resulted from diseases and parasites. Nature has given humans the most number of diseases because humans are physically and mentally the most complex living thing and because humans both eat and live in unhealthy ways and because humans cause pollution which our so called loving creator allows. Suffering and death from Nature isn't caused by Adam and Eve but it's caused by either a cruel, insane, stupid, incompetent, amoral creator or its because of the mindless, amoral forces of Evolution.
It should also be noted that Sand flies were parasites since the Cretaceous period and very likely tormented Dinosaurs and other vertebrates living at the time. Sand flies suck blood of their victims and are known to cause Leishmaniasis. It's more prevalent in equatorial or tropical climates. Sand flies continue to torment animals and humans today and were around millions of years before the mythical Genesis Creation Week with Adam and Eve. Creationists are unwilling to admit that suffering and death existed millions of years before Adam and Eve. They like believing in phony myths and they like being delusional and ignorant, and while they sleep, Nature's savage forces continue to torture and kill. It's an ancient history or prehistory of suffering, death, and extinctions. There cannot be an omnibenevolent, loving, merciful creator who made such a cruel, disgusting, heartless, pitiless, merciless world.
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