Convergence; another example (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, March 09, 2014, 15:55 (3912 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: Well, let me know when they prove that your God planned the adipose fin as a mere stepping stone to human arms and legs...-DAVID: Life is like a shotgun, spraying inventions in every direction. taht is why the bush and not a tree.-DAVID ( under "Cambrian Explosion") Today, as a result of Chinese paleontology, biologists must choose between classic Darwinism and "saltation," the idea of evolution in quick jumps, says biologist Holland. Chinese gossil discoveries have wrought havoc upon his once-tidy tree of life: "You just hardly know what order to put the material in now. I mean, you might as well just present the phyla alphabetically. It's come to that."-You could hardly have made it clearer that evolution is a higgledy-piggledy process of random developments, innovations, extinctions, with no underlying plan and no fixed purpose.