Re: Ancient tetrapod predator

On 04/07/2024 21:29, John Harshman wrote:

On 7/4/24 12:51 PM, RonO wrote:

On 7/4/2024 9:18 AM, John Harshman wrote:

On 7/3/24 6:29 PM, RonO wrote:

On 7/3/2024 5:56 PM, John Harshman wrote:

On 7/3/24 3:04 PM, RonO wrote:

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fossils-show-huge-salamanderlike-predator-sharp-fangs-existed-111645297
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The giant salamander with fangs may have lived 280 million years ago, and they claim that Namibia was in a much colder region of the world at that time (they claim glacial region).
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Click on the link in the fourth paragraph and you can get a copy of the Nature article to read, otherwise the article is pay walled.
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Ron Okimoto
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What do you mean by "they claim"? Are you trying to cast doubt on the Permian glaciation? There's plenty of evidence for it.
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Why would you think that I was casting doubt on their claims.

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That's more or less what "they claim" connotes. Perhaps you misspoke?

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Perhaps you misunderstood.  They did make those claims in the paper.
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The paper indicates that if the region of Pangea that is now Namibia was as cold as they think, then amphibians had adapted to colder climates after diversification during the Caboniferous.

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"As cold as they think" is hardly a matter of "if". That part of Gondwana was near the south pole at the time, and there's all sorts of evidence of a protracted series of ice ages. There were of course interglacials, but there would still have been very long, cold winters. Think Alaska.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Paleozoic_icehouse
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You seem to want to misunderstand what I wrote.
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 Don't really want to belabor the point, but "they claim" and "if...as cold as they think" are just not appropriate for what are well-settled scientific facts. If I said "They claim that whales are artiodactyls" or "if the mid-Atlantic ridge is a spreading center as they think", what would you make of that?
 

I sometimes use "report" when I'm not in a position to endorse something out of my own knowledge or understanding. I hope this doesn't have the negative implications of the use of "claim" in this context.
--
alias Ernest Major