Re: Okamura source

[Benjamin Martin Waggoner <bmw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Dear All,
> 
> Someone has refered to some work by a Japanese scientist called C.Okamura.
> Apparently there is some evidence here of vertebrate ancestors in the
> Palaeozoic identifiable as modern-looking tetrapods, including mammals, but
> a good deal smaller in size (perhaps embryos?).
> 
> This sounds a very interesting piece of work, but my correspondant knows
> neither the journal nor the date; so I am asking if anyone is aware of this
> paper, and whether any work has been done on these specimens since.
> 
I actually have a copy of Okamura's 1987 monograph, "New findings: _Homo_
and all vertebrates were born spontaneously in Paleozoic of Japan," or
something like that. It is one of the funniest paleontological monographs
ever written, the more so because it's intended as a serious contribution.
>From the opening sentence, describing Darwin's voyage on the Eagle, it is
pure delight to read.
The fossils are all described from one outcrop of limestone, in thin 
section. Most of them are chance markings in the rock. Cross-sections
of fusulinid forams are identified as "ovisacks" of the "Far Eastern
minicreatures;" it seems that these animals were exactly like living
mammals, except they were millimeter-size and reproduced by laying eggs
in "ovisacks." All fossils belong to living species, except they are
tiny, so they are all in the subspecies "miniorientalis." Thus we find,
in the Paleozoic, Bison bison miniorientalis, Crotalus horridus
miniorientalis, Oryx oryx miniorientalis, Pan troglodytes miniorientalis,
and even various races of the enigmatic Homo sapiens miniorientalis, among 
many other such treasures. (Is Homo sapiens miniorientalis the 
primitive outgroup to the clade containing extant leprechauns and elves?)
There were even miniature dragons in the Silurian: Fightingdraconis
miniorientalis, Twistdraconis miniorientalis, and so on. Invertebrate
biologists will also find something of interest: Okamura reports
corals, crinoids, and archaeocyathids (!) coexisting with the
miniature vertebrates, so the entire history of Phanerozoic animal
life is recorded in one outcrop. The author 
presents all this as a seriously-intended attack on Darwinian evolution.

Okamura, by the way, published 15 "Contributions of the Okamura Fossil
Laboratory," all on this limestone. The first twelve or so deal with
forams, algae, etc. and seem legitimate, but the rest deal with this
miniature vertebrate fauna. If you get a chance, read the "minicreatures"
monographs, as they're quite funny, but they lack scientific value, 
except as a negative example of actualism taken to a bizarre extreme.  

Ben Waggoner
UCMP
Berkeley, CA 94720
bmw@uclink2.berkeley.edu