I?d like to inquire, RE:

I’m a Tiktaalik roseae who wishes to find a radical christian individual or family with which to have a meaningful dialogue about evolution.

I believe you and I have the potential for some very enlightening conversations?

in order to be considered for this honor, you must first guess my age correctly (the nearest 10 million years would suffice)

Well, according to all the available literature, you lived during the mid Devonian?approximately 375 million years old.

and acknowledge the validity of the carbon dating process.

But here?s where we?ll have some compatibility issues. The reason being is because you were discovered in Devonian strata?the geologic period which began approximate 395 million years ago and lasted 50 million years?dates which could not have been determined via the Carbon-14 method. As any neophyte paleontologists knows, Carbon-14 is only useful for determining ages up to approximately 60,000 years?not 375 million. So, if we are to engage in a meaningful discussion, I suggest you first brush-up on your knowledge of radiometric dating.

only then can we meet for the first time so that you may observe how my fins are becoming more like your present arms and legs and how i can breathe both in and out of water

And here?s another potential compatibility issue we may have. Again, according to the latest literature about you, it has yet to be determined with any degree of certainty that you do indeed possess lungs. According to Malcolm Ritter?s article on myway.com, ?It [you] probably had lungs as well as gills,? hmmm, seems highly speculative to me. Oh, and one more thing Ritter points out: ?The researchers have not yet dug up any remains from the hind end of the creature’s body, so they don’t know exactly what the hind fins and tail might have looked like.? Wow, so they?re making some pretty serious assumptions about your entire morphology ergo capabilities, aren?t they? Sounds to me like we really don?t know as much about you as all the hoopla suggests. Perhaps a lot more evidence is needed before such claims about your pedigree and abilities can be substantiated.

But, nonetheless, you sound like an interesting fellow and I think some enlightened discussions could do us both some good.

in order to be considered for this honor, you must first guess my age correctly (the nearest 10 million years would suffice) and acknowledge the validity of the carbon dating process.

only then can we meet for the first time so that you may observe how my fins are becoming more like your present arms and legs and how i can breathe both in and out of water (which you can’t even do by the way so maybe i’m better than you).

Then i would like to discuss this great book that you found from a couple thousand years ago that may suggest that i never existed because this planet of ours is only 6000 or so years old.

anyway, i am excited for the prospect and it should all be glorious fun if i can find the right party with which to form this special relationship.

btw, i reserve the right to bite a piece out of your ass with my powerful jaws if you get fresh with me or insist that i was created by a supreme being of some kind.

i mean, why would a supreme being need to create a transitional creature?

but alas, let’s save the discussion until i pick the lucky one of you to share experiences with.

since i don’t have internet service at the north polar region, please contact me by belting out the words “my ancestors were not fish” in the form of a good primal scream on the north shores of Ellesmere Island, Canada.

sincerely,

Tiki Rose

pat.robertson@godzone.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040901063.html

Atheists who are readers of SF and fantasy might enjoy my site. Especially my takedown of Jack McDevitt’s Omega, which prompted an impassioned response from him.

http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2006/04/dino_adventure.html#more

I will sleep well tonight knowing that some meaningless props have been taken away from another “snake oil” salesman. The story could only get better if they persist to deny the courts ruling and their beloved DAL is raised to the ground.