Re: More for da birds...

lhaarsma@OPAL.TUFTS.EDU
Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:49:24 -0400 (EDT)

I've got a question for you, Steve. I your discussion with Nicholas
Matzke regarding birds, dinos, and lizards, you seemed to come to
agreement on at least this point: There are a number of late dino species
with a few "bird" characteristics, and there are a number of early birds
with many "dino" chacteristics; however, these (known) species do NOT
clearly form an ancestral sequence. Is that accurate?

I'm guessing that you would argue that some of the changes necessary to go
from dinos to birds (feathers, beaks, hips, breastbones, etc.) are
non-trivial (mutationally), and would require "supernatural intervention
at strategic points." Is that accurate?

Now here's the question: Suppose several late dino and several early bird
species have a certain "bird" characteristic (e.g. beaks), but these
species do not form an ancestral chain, would this require God to perform
the same supernatural intervention at several different strategic points?

Wondering where you're going with this....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal. | Loren Haarsma
--Calvin (_Calvin_and_Hobbes_) | lhaarsma@opal.tufts.edu