Creation Museum is built on fossil-bearing rock

God is surely laughing at Ken Ham: the “Answers in Genesis” Creation Museum is built on a famous layer comprised of millions of years’ worth of sediments laden with billions of fossils. Those who say that fossils have been hand-carved will please explain them. Those who say that the rocks were laid down in a year will explain the deep rocks made of alternating layers of fossil-rich limestone, deposited by shallow oceans, and shales, deposited by river outflows. Ninety-five percent of all fossils are of marine shellfish — not surprisingly since their shells are so durable. Those who think that evolution didn’t happen get to explain why these marine creatures are arranged in distinct ecological communities with no modern forms in the older layers.

Here’s an amateur video that shows a small part of this rich landscape and explains what we’re seeing.

Hat tip to PZ Myers at Pharyngula for the link “This is how to critique a Creation Science museum”.

Anne McLaren is dead

Developmental biologist Anne McClaren has died in a car crash at the age of 80.

She became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975 and became their Foreign Secretary in 1991. She maintained communications with other scientific societies around the world.

You can read about her at the Women in Science blog.

Grant’s Anatomy

An obscure museum in the bowels of the University of Toronto harbours the anatomical specimens used for Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy, which is now up to its eleventh edition. Unlike Grey’s Anatomy, it’s long on illustrations and labels and short on descriptive text.

Charlie Storton, now 91, did most of the dissections for the museum and atlas.

Below is a specimen in the JCB Grant Museum of Anatomy.

The Straight Dope on "Why does Buddha have long earlobes?"

The Straight Dope is a long-running column in the Chicago Reader, where the legendary Cecil Adams answers questions from readers. It’s a sort of literary equivalent to the television show “How It’s Made” (formerly “What Will They Think of Next?” Their motto is FIGHTING IGNORANCE SINCE 1973 (IT’S TAKING LONGER THAN WE THOUGHT).

You can get a weekly e-mail roundup with a few of the week’s questions. This week’s leads off with “Why do statues of Buddha have long earlobes?“