<<In discussing said problems, though, you mentioned some
obstacles to evolution which turn out to be false. Are you going to
acknowledge this or not? Oh, sorry, I think you already answered this
question.>>
Well, just to be clear, I'll quote Michael J. Benton, author of the college
text Vertebrate Palaeontolgy, who freely acknowledges the obstacles, just as I
related in my original message:
"The major problems with life on land relate to weight and structural support
as much as to the physiology of breating air. A fish is buoyed up by the water
and its body weight may be effectively zero. On land, however, the body as to
be held up by some form of limbs, and the skeleton as all the internal organs
have to become structuarally modified in order to cope with the new downward
pull of gravity. The backbone of a fish is adapted for the stresses of lateral
stretching and bending during swimming, but the main forces to which a
tetrapod is subject are caused by gravity. The vertebrae and the muscles
around the backbone have to become modified to prevent the body from sagging
between the limbs. The mode of locomotion of a tetrapod on land is generally
different from that of a fish in water." [Benton, Vertebrate Palaeontology,
Chapman & Hall 1990, pp. 46-47]
Funny, no mention anywhere of "walking" catfish in his book. The guy must be a
nut.
Jim