At 02:31 PM 5/31/00 -0700, Adam wrote:
[...]
>Hmmm... I kind of wonder if it's as advanced as the fossil "lampreys" also
>discovered in China from c. 530 mya. It's not as advanced as the conodonts
>[c.510 mya] I suspect and they seem to be the first vertebrates - bone
>bearing chordates, at least. The article expands on the discoverer's idea
>that "harmony" is as much a part of evolution as selection - whatever
>harmony is. Lots of quotes from "doubting Thomases" about the Cambrian
>Explosion being explicable by neoDarwinism and then a biased view on the
>meaning of fossilised embryoes from the PreCambrian. The whole article
>seems like a beat-up written for a few cheap points.
>
>Evidence? Of bias, yes.
>
I've been curious just what is meant by "harmony". Is the Nature article
available on line? If not
can someone give volume, issue, and page # ?
Generally speaking, the type things the author is saying seems very much
like what some
structural/developmental biologists might say. Developmental constraints
provide a much
narrower path through morphological phase space, perhaps providing a more
rapid transit.
Provided a path exists :). Is this the harmony he's speaking of?
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering
The Ohio State University
"One never knows, do one?"
-- Fats Waller
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