Re: Lizard Legs

Stephen Jones (sjones@iinet.com.au)
Thu, 13 Jul 95 21:46:33 EDT

Glenn

On Wed, 12 Jul 1995 07:24:11 -0400 you wrote:

AC>2. Did the biologists learn anything about how a reptile leg turned
into a
>bird leg?

GM>2. I. think so. You might not and I might be wrong. But doesn't
it strike
>you as odd that this procedure yields a reptile leg from a bird leg?

*Was* it actually a "reptile's leg"? Gould's account of Hampe's
experiments
on chicken embryos in "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes", pp184-186, only
allow the ibia and fibula to grow unrestricted until they become equal
in length, as
occurs in reptiles and also in Archaeopteryx.

This demonstrates that reptiles and birds are similar genetically,
which is
not surprising since they are so similar morphologically. Of course it
cuts
both ways. Archaeopteryx might be a throwback?

GM>I see no way to explain this except by evolution...

I can think of another way...progressive creation! :-) I have no
problem with
the idea of God creating birds from a reptilian plan (genotypic and
pehnotypic).
Especially since "evolution" has no plausible mechanism to account for
this happening naturalistically.

God bless.

Stephen

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