[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date
Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index] Re: Re-
emergence of lost features. At 06:59 PM 13/03/1998 -0000, John
Jackson wrote: " . . .the phorusrhacoids (a group of extinct,
flightless, predatory birds) re-evolved large, clawed hands with
mobile fingers. They doubtless used these hands in subduing
their mammalian prey and evolved their hands from typical avian
wings. Phorusrhacoids also developed large, recurved claws on
their second toes . . ."One may wonder whether the genetic
information to redisplay an old feature can still be there after
tens of millions of years As I understand it the phorusracid
"clawed hand" was not the redisplay of an old feature but the
rejigging of the bird wing so that the hand, instead of folding
back at the carpal joint, projected forward forming grasping
claws modified from the fused fingers - in other words, they
evolved a new structural arrangement unique to that group that
functioned in, presumably, a similar fash