Evolution is the basis for all modern biology and nothing in life makes sense without an evolutionary lens. http://ncse.com/evolution
Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) actually submitted a resolution to the House of Representatives to declare February 12th as Darwin Day, which I support, though I have more than a suspicion he has an uphill battle ahead of him on this. Far too many members of Congress think the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, with far too many of them sitting on the House Science Committee. Of course, to be fair, having even one is one too many.
The American Humanist Association is asking people to write their Representatives in support this resolution. You can also celebrate Darwin Day; look for events in your region. And because science is always under fire, why not toss some cash the National Center for Science Education’s way? They are fighting to make sure that some day, an idea like evolution is understood by everyone for what it is: Reality.
From left to right: Galileo Galilei, Marie Curie, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Thomas Edison, Aristotle, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin.
The end of the Cretaceous was marked by a catastrophic meteor impact that wiped out the non-bird dinosaurs (called the K-T boundary). Turtles also survived the mass extinction because of their slow metabolisms and aquatic lifestyles (land turtles did not survive the extinction). The tough little turtles can survive by eating almost nothing and go into a state of near suspended animation until food opportunities present themselves.
This is a photograph of the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota where fossils of dinosaurs and turtles have been collected. The K-T boundary is located where the yellow sand meets the gray mudstone.
