Oldest lamprey found, according a report in Nature, vol. 443, p981, 26 October 2006. Scientists from University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and University of Chicago have found a fossilised Lamprey (a jawless fish) in Devonian rocks in South Africa. It is dated as being 35 million years older than the previous oldest specimen. The new fossil is remarkably similar to living lampreys, and the researchers comment that lampreys are “ancient specialists that have persisted as such and survived a subsequent 360 million years” and therefore “lampreys might be described as ‘living fossils’.”
Editorial Comment: Darwin coined the term “living fossil” but they are no evidence for evolution. Living fossils are creatures whose fossils are the same as living examples. In this case, the researchers’ comments are another way of saying that lampreys have multiplied after their kind, just as Genesis tells us that living things were made to do. (Ref. fish, vertebrates, palaeontology)
Evidence News 24 April 2007