Evolution: a different view (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 06, 2015, 22:18 (3488 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw; Can you please point me to just one writer who interprets exaptations in terms of God's pre-planning?-Tattersall discusses it in suggestive terms, not as forcefully as I do.
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> Dhw: if you define language as signs, sounds, movements etc. used as means of communication, your whole theory becomes highly problematical. All living creatures have language, right down to bacteria, and you have no idea what sort of sounds were used for communication when the changes took place in the larynx, palate and uvula.-Not problematical. If you read McCrone's book, you would understand the logic of my statements. The anatomic adaptations for modern speech came long before language of any simple kind involving words, not grunts, evolved.-> 
> My point here is that whenever the changes took place, we simply have no idea whether they were or were not used to create more complex sounds to allow greater breadth of communication. Once again, I don't see how you can asssume they hung around doing nothing for (hundreds of) thousands of years.-I am depending upon the book by McCrone and the fact that Tattersall points this out as exaptation. I'm quoting experts, not me. -> dhw:Just where do you draw the line between adaptation, exaptation, and innovation? In fact, is there a line? ...The borderlines between these three categories must inevitably remain blurred.-I have written there is confusion in the literature about this concept and these terms, but several authors state that exaptation are both used and unused new parts of organisms.-A long and complex article discussing the confusion, Gould's and Tattersall's approaches, with two types of exaptation:-http://www.wcaanet.org/downloads/dejalu/may_2013/pievani.pdf