Earliest mammal fossil discovered.

[Tank]

Discovery of a 160-Million-Year-Old Fossil Represents a New Milestone in Early Mammal Evolution

ScienceDaily (Aug. 24, 2011) — A remarkably well-preserved fossil discovered in northeast China provides new information about the earliest ancestors of most of today's mammal species -- the placental mammals. According to a paper published August 25 in the journal Nature, this fossil represents a new milestone in mammal evolution that was reached 35 million years earlier than previously thought, filling an important gap in the fossil record and helping to calibrate modern, DNA-based methods of dating the evolution...

...Resetting the evolutionary clock

"Understanding the beginning point of placentals is a crucial issue in the study of all mammalian evolution," says Luo. The date of an evolutionary divergence -- when an ancestor species splits into two descendant lineages -- is among the most important pieces of information an evolutionary scientist can have. Modern molecular studies, such as DNA-based methods, can calculate the timing of evolution by a "molecular clock." But the molecular clock needs to be cross-checked and tested by the fossil record. Prior to the discovery of Juramaia, the divergence point of eutherians from metatherians posed a quandary for evolutionary historians: DNA evidence suggested that eutherians should have shown up earlier in the fossil record -- around 160 million years ago. Yet, the oldest known eutherian, was Eomaia*, dated to 125 million years ago. The discovery of Juramaia gives much earlier fossil evidence to corroborate the DNA findings, filling an important gap in the fossil record of early mammal evolution and helping to establish a new milestone of evolutionary history...

"Molecular Dating" is begining to become an ever more accurate tool in dating when spieces evolved/diverged. This find shows that the molecular dating method was correct (in this case) and that there were mammals around way before the earliest known mammal fossils. This is important because the same dating method is showing that multicellular organisms existed a long time before the first fossils that we currently have (600MYA). The probable reason for not having fossils is that these creatures were extremely delicate, like modern jelly fish, and fossilised very, very poorly. But with more evidential support to calibrate the "molecular clock" we can start filling in the branches of the tree of life without fossils.

[Tank]

Another article with artist's impression of the creature 'Jurassic Mother' Found in China

[Sweetdeath]

Hah, awesome.  This kinda squashes YEC view,but we already had more evidence than just this against them.

I am glad we have something other than carbon dating to rely on.

[Tank]

Hah, awesome.  This kinda squashes YEC view,but we already had more evidence than just this against them.

I am glad we have something other than carbon dating to rely on.

I read this book recently http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quaternary-Dating-Methods-Mike-Walker/dp/0470869275

It's very interesting and deals with numerous methods that go as far back as 2.5 million years. There are other methods that go way further back than that! One quaternery method uses the the effects of cosmic rays on the surfaces of exposed rocks!