On Mon, 5 Jun 1995 18:53:21 -0400 you wrote:
>An article in the June 1995 Scientific American called *Flying in the Face of
>Tradition* reports on an unpopular proposal by ornithologist Alan Feduccia
>that modern birds did not evolve from dinosaurs and that they all appeared
>withing the last 5 to 10 million years. He says the shorter timescale
>suggests a major revolution in our thinking about how evolution occurs.
It certainly would! And it also shows that the evidence for
traditional reptile-bird transition, ie. Archaeopteryx, is not fully
convincing to specialists.
>The
>article also suggests that this would cause phylogeneticists using geologic
>timescales to recalibrate their molecular clocks. It also said the theory
>would preclude attributing modern orders, such as the large South American
>flightless birds, to drifting continents. The article also referenced Philip
>Gingerich's work on the rapid morphological change in the 10 million year
>evolution of whales from land animals.
Actually I hadn't realised that Gingerich was only proposing a 10 MY
time scale for land animals to whales. In view of the enormous
changes needed (see my Dewar quote), this is either a case of mistaken
identity, or evidence of Progressive Creation. It sure doesn't sound
like Darwin and Dawkin's slow cumulative selection!
>Are these shortened timescales (for the divergence of modern species)
> becoming more accepted in evolutionary circles?
I doubt if they could become accepted and the theory survive. IMHO
they are really evidence against the Darwinian theory of evolution:
"It is the contention of the Darwinian world-view that...slow,
gradual, cumulative natural selection is the ultimate explanation for
our existence. If there are versions of the evolution theory that
deny slow gradualism, and deny the central role of natural selection,
they may be true in particular cases. But they cannot be the whole
truth, for they deny the very heart of the evolution theory, which
gives it the power to dissolve astronomical improbabilities and
explain prodigies of apparent miracle." (Dawkins R., "The Blind
Watchmaker", 1991, Penguin, p318).
Stephen