Does Tiktaalik Roseae serve as evidence for evolution?

Answer 1

Tiktaalik's fin bones were not connected to its main skeleton, and so could not have supported its weight out of water. And the similarity between species could also reflect common design.

Answer

Isn't the modern mudskipper evidence enough?

Answer

No. Recent discovery of the prints of a four-footed animal that dates in evolutionary terms at 18 million years earlier than Tiktaalik have forced scientists to reconsider their earlier assumption that Tiktaalik represented a missing link.

Answer

Tiktaalik serves as simply another transitional form linking the evolution between two groups of animals, akin to Archaeopteryx. It has become landmark but more work remains to be done. As new fossils are uncovered Tiktaalik will be likely be moved around the evolutionary tree.

Answer 2

AnswerTiktaalik Roseae is the name of a recently discovered lobe-finned fossil fish from the late Devonian period, that appears to be a transitional form to amphibians. Its fins were muscular and appeared to be weight-bearing, had bones similar to basic wrists and fingers, as well as the robust ribcage necessitated by existence out of water. Evolutionary scientists believe there would be no natural explanation for Tiktaalik other than evolution.

A good scientific theory should be able to predict facts not yet known. A research team believed, on the basis of the Theory of Evolution, that if they searched the right kind of rocks at the right age, they should find a species that was transitional between fish and land-based amphibians. After five years of escavating in a late-Devonian layer, dated to around 375 million years ago, that they found Tiktaalik Roseae. The discovery was not an accident - the scientists were looking for a species that the Theory of Evolution had predicted would exist and would be there, and they foundit.

While no one would claim that one species irrevocably proves the Theory of Evolution, they believe it presents more evidence that evolution is the most rational explanation we have for the world around us.

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