>Conifers do not appear until the Carboniferous which is about 300 myr ago. Simply repeating the false claim, this time from your book, does nothing to make the claim true. Cite a single paleontology article in which conifers are found in the upper Ordovician (which is older than the Silurian) which is where fish are first found.<
Some further data, without much conclusion:
I believe the current records for oldest known seeds and evidence for woody plants are latest Devonian. Land plants extend into the Silurian, with possibly terrestrial material (mostly spores) into the Ordovician. Dr. Patricial Gensel at UNC-Chapel Hill would be a good person to contact about current knowledge on early plants, if anyone is interested, and would certainly be quicker than my finding my notes from her class a few years ago. Algae, on the other hand, extend well into the Precambrian, and photosynthetic bacteria even earlier. It seems a bit of a stretch to assume that Genesis 1 is referring to cyanobacteria, however.
The oldest material of jawless fish scales dates to the late Cambrian (Astrapis), but some of the early Cambrian Chenjiang organisms have been identified as fishlike chordates. Conodonts, probably the ancestors of true fishes, range back to the earliest Cambrian or latest Precambrian. Jawed fishes go back at least to the Silurian. However, the generality of taxonomic concepts in Hebrew, especially for unclean aquatic animals, would suggest that shellfish may also be included in the category of fish. This would probably include the late Precambrian Ediacaran fauna, if an ancient Hebrew had had any reason to refer to it.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
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That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droigate Spa
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