ARCHAEOPTERYX NO FRAUD - San Francisco (May 27) The notorious theory that a form of Panspermia, not Darwinian evolution is the driver of morphological changes among species over time was mentioned-- though not endorsed --on the Ask Dr. Hal! Radio Valencia podcast the night of the 27th as the esoteric show staggered into beginning, reports and memories tell us. Present were Jett and (after a mere 20 minutes) KrOB himself. The originators of the theory have defamed Archaeopteryx lithographica by calling it a deliberate Piltdown-style fake by cultish scientific malfeasers. But in fact, an entirely new type of this enantiornithine has quite recently been unearthed according to its discoverers. Are they working overtime turning out new Archies around the clock? It seems that only 12 specimens have ever been found before now-- and all are from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany, dating back approximately 150 million years. Now, Dr. Martin Kundrát from the University of Pavol, Jozef Šafárik and co-authors have identified a NEW species of Archaeopteryx — named A. albersdoerferi — that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms. This is because it appears "more bird-like." One might argue simply that more avian features, present in all, fossilized for the first known time in this specimen. And a splendid time was had by all. Let's hope KrOB gets his archived podcasts back from the Ether, after another destructive glitch from in-house dithering devices has made them "unavailable."