In my TV watching days (before my brain was developed) I used to watch reruns of popular "sitcom" shows like Gilligan's Island.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin' man, the skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour. A three hour tour.OK. A 3 hour tour is believable. So what about a 3 year tour with no water? But not by humans. I'm talking about iguanas of course.
Can iguanas raft for 7,000 miles with no water and then mate on the other side?
Via Retardipedia: Fiji Banded Iguana.
These iguanas are believed to have evolved from green iguanas that rafted on debris across 7,000 miles of Pacific Ocean from South America some 13 million years ago.The farthest I've seen is 200 miles. A 1 month journey with no water: Rafting Iguanas.
Incredibly, in September 1995, 15 green iguanas were swept out to sea after hurricane Luis blasted the island of Guadeloupe. The lizards clung for life to a mat of uprooted trees for some 320 kilometers (200 miles), until one month later they washed up on the island of Anguilla (an-GWI-luh). Local fishermen who spotted the iguanas surfing ashore were stunned.So in other words, the trip to Fiji-Tonga would be a 35 month journey with no water.
Hmm, maybe Hume was wrong about miracles after all.
Or maybe not.
"Fiji's banded iguana Brachylophus is sister to the Californian iguanid, Dipsosaurus (Sites et al., 1996) and iguanas appear nowhere else in the Central or West Pacific." (McCarthy 2005)
"The most likely reason for the distributional pattern of... banded iguanas is not because of a conspiracy of local environmental circumstances that somehow prevented long term colonization of every other oceanic island in the world.... A more reasonable explanation is that the papers disputing the geological paleomaps and molecular clock assumptions are, in fact, correct." (McCarthy 2005)
Sites, et al., Character Congruence and Phylogenetic Signal in Molecular and Morphological Data Sets: a Case Study in the Living Iguanas (Squamata, Iguanidae), Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 13, Pages 1087-1105, 1996
Yoon, C.K., Hapless Iguanas Float Away And Voyage Grips Biologists, New York Times, Oct 1998
Rivera, R., Rafting Iguanas, Science World, Jan 1999
McCarthy, D.D., Biogeography and Scientific Revolutions, The Systematist, Number 25, Pages 3-12, 2005
And speaking of TV watching, Season 1 of The History Channel's The Universe is now available on Blu-Ray from Amazon.Com.
Oh and in case you can't get the stupid Gilligan's Island Theme Song out of your head, listen to The Dune Sea of Tatooine, The Moisture Farm, and Landspeeder Search/Attack of the Sand People by John Williams. It's good desert iguana music.
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3 comments:
NEAL ADAMS COMES TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Neal Adams is well known in the world of comics as an illustrator and story writer, being the artist for such well known characters as Batman.
But in addition to his day job, Neal Adams is an avid scientific observer who has contributed his talents and resources to Expanding Earth theory in the form of video presentations that give a visualization to the debate.
(Many of his video presentations are available on the side-bar.)
Expanding Earth theory is uniquely constituted to benefit from visual presentations. Mr. Adams has contributed greatly to expanding (no pun intended) the audience for this provocative, yet scientifically based theory.
Mr. Adams comes to the neighborhood:
As many readers probably know BrianR author of Clastic Detritus engaged in extended discussion, here, on Oil Is Mastery: Expanding Earth Outline, and has subsequently posted a three part series on Subduction theory.
BrianR is a Expanding Earth denialist (it's a long river in Egypt).
Neal Adams posted a comment on the above linked Clastic Detritus series and I thought it might be of interest.
Neal Adams' comment follows:
November 18, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Hi
Neal Adams here. I’m the originator of this small disturbance in the force. Vids on Youtube and many more on my site, and some writing. Physics explanation of “MATTER CREATION at the outer(plasma) core.
(I know, I know.)
As to “Expanding Earth” The name originally given to the theory by Professor of Geology, Sammuel Warren Carey of Sidney (University, I think.) in his first and second books in the 60’s and 70’s.
As you may or may not know, ‘Sam’ was a leading light in the NEW theory of tectonics when he stepped forward and basically said “We have not gone far enough.”
Through Geology Sam showed that the evolving Pangea theory was short-sighted and Atlantic Ocean-European-American centric, and that ALL the oceans of the Earth showed exactly the same ribboning of ages as the Atlantic, that they were virtually the same in all the oceans.
And that, with natural variations all deep oceanic spreading began , Atlantic and Pacific at the same general time starting about 180 MYA and has been proceeding and EXPONENTIALLY INCREASING until now.
(I added the “exponential “part.)
Well,of course the shit really hit the fan. Sam’s Geology was impeccable and irrefutable. Hell, he had been writing papers as Tectonics moved forward, since 1925. Many Geologists supported his theory. The problems came from ’science’ and Physics.
What was the mechanism for the creation of NEW MATTER? (Because, scientifically, the only way this could be possible is for there to be introduced, new matter. Not “expansion” Nor “accretionary material” or anything? What was the mechanism?
Even so, the theory gained adherents. More and more with time.
Then one fine day two fellows named Wadaddi and Benioff discovered a descending oceanic plate FAR OFF the coast if SAMOA. AH-HA!
SUBDUCTION had been discovered. Geology had been saved. Geology breathed a deep sigh of relief. They needn’t worry about that New Zealander from Australia EVER AGAIN.
An interesting note: No one, ever, really successfully attacked Carey’s work. They just sort of “went around it”. Didn’t NEED it. The Earth ATE it’s own skin, and that was that.
Well, not it’s whole skin. there’s billions of years old continents,..so Earth ate it’s own oceanic crust, right back to 180 MYA,….um, well, no, most of the very small area that is between 180 and 160 Million Years Old hasn’t been eaten at all. It still sits there, and oddly enough any deep oceanic plate that should be WITHIN, or NEXT TO this oldest plate,..doesn’t exist. That is pretty strange. It’s as if there wasn’t actually any oceanic plate older than 180 MYO. and, darn little of that. It’s as if deep tectonic spreading BEGAN 180 MYA.
A new-ish and amazing new discovery finds a very small deep rift that began about 300 MYA in the upper Mediterranean. It’s small and seems to be the only rift, that’s that old. and it took about 100 Million Years to spread. Then 180MYA North America and Africa began their rift and a THREE WAY RIFT began in, what became, the Pacific.
I don’t usually take this long to get to my point, I’m sorry.
Anyway, as a young artist, I could easily see how perfectly the continental granitic crust fit together. Like an archaeologist with pieces of a vase I put the plates together in my mind, then with tracing paper and balls of differing sizes. Each bit of valid and strong Geology supported Carey’s conjecture. Theories hardly ever did. The mechanics was a lock. But the Physics???? A mechanism?
Thing is Carey was a Geologist, not a Physicist. How could he “FIND” the mechanism? He could study Physics and the Standard theory, (And he did) but to strike gold twice?!!!
Worse , when his theory was popular he encouraged Geologists, NOT PHYSICISTS! And now,… he had shot his wad, and lost. Who would voluntarily help him?
Even if he got the help, his theory was so FAR-OUT , it went against, as I said, standard theory, who would throw away their career on such a fruitless endeavor?
As soon as such a Physicist would open his mouth, he’d lose tenure, FRIENDS, and likely his JOB.
WHAT IDIOT…??????????? Heh, heh. Well, I went to an art high school and became a successful cartoonist/illustrator/writer. I didn’t go to college, I hate higher math, elitist and exclusionary language, but I love and have always loved science.
I discovered that I could get the books I wanted, and they were in a reasonable English, I could learn what I needed to learn.
So, I decided to look for and find the Mechanism. I figured 2 or 3 years; Id write and draw it up in a graphic novel and I could rid myself of it.
It took 35 years. Bitch, huh? During that time, I’ve had an incredible career and am actually admired by far too many people.
Now, I’m going to throw it all away on this.
Thing is…I actually do do my homework. I’m not thought of as a “NUT”……..YET! And I’m hardly ever wrong. So there you have it. I’m getting to my point.
Subduction.
Is there ’subduction’ the way Geology thinks of it, Eating ALL THE OCEANIC PLATE? Of course not.It’s a fairy tale fantasy.
Is there Compressive subduction at the ring of fire and some few other places?
SURE!. There is also Compressive “Obduction”. There is also COMPRESSIVE MOUNTAIN BUILDING. You can’t have massive spreading SO EVENLY that you don’t get “some” compressing. Hell, it’s a “GROWING PLANET-GROWING UNIVERSE” . Yep, that’s what the theory is called now.
A bit cumbersome, I’ll admit, but I’m not selling tickets to a movie, I’m being descriptive.
Heres a couple of ?”FACTS” 1. According to the Crustal Age Map, if you examine it VERRRY carefully, Subduction began about 60 MYA.
What caused it to happen??
Well, compression, of course, But as it turns out about 60 MYA Antarctica tore loose from Australia, AND ALL AROUND BEGAN THAT MASSIVE NEW SPREADING Antarctic Ocean.
Thing is,….with spreading happening all around Antarctica 360 degrees… it all pushes away against itself. Even the rift is traveling upward!
So UPWARD-PUSHING the Australian plate is shoved like a battering ram. The western pacific is no longer spreading and Australia SHATTERS the OCEANIC PLATE INTO PIECES.
The CURVED Western Pacific oceanic plate on a RE-CURVING EARTH digs its edges into the broken plate and begins to subduct under the shattered plate there at the ring of fire , about 60 MYA.
In some areas nearly a hundred miles of oceanic plate may have subducted.
But IT COULDN’T HAVE subducted under 60 km thick solid-bottomed Asia
Or gone past the asthenosphere into the DENSE SOLID MANTLE.
But the Atlantic is 4,000/5,000 miles wide.
Regrds
Neal Adams
P.S. Of course there’s more. But , hey, that’s a lot, right?
Bah, he should comment here not there haha.
Tim Flannery in his book "The Future Eaters" described how a species of New Zealand bats are genetically related to the Peruvian Fishing Bats.
His explanation for their existence in NW was that they must have flown westwards to NZ at some earlier time.
Problem - breeding bats requires a genetically diverse population.
Problem - how do Bats fly against the Roaring 40's to get to NZ.
Problem if they island hopped closer to the equator, why have then then not populated those islands as well.
Geoscience is replete with these Lyellian lyricisms but the explanation I favour is that the NZ bats were probably Peruvian bats which stowed on the Ming Dynasty Chinese Junks that were traversing the Pacific at the time (Gavin Menzies 1421 and 1434 research).
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