>Stephen Jones quoted from the following by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
>(Principal Research Associate of the Center for Cognitive Science at
>MIT):
>
>> "Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of
>> Reason Rule Our Minds" (John Wiley &
>> Sons: New York, 1994).
>
>> Suffice it to remind the reader that
>> insects had evolved at least ten
>> elaborate forms of mouthpieces, uniquely
>> "adapted" (one would say) to their
>> feeding upon flowers, one hundred million
>> years before there were any flowers on
>> Earth. Try to explain that with the
>> notion of adaptation.
>
My initial reaction to this quote was that it sounded
like something Gould might say. In other words, the
intent of the author was to say that evolution is
a very complex phenomena unlikely to be explained
solely by adaptationism.
Be that as it may, I read the article in question
tonight and could not find anywhere in it support
for the claim above, i.e. that the mouthpieces are
uniquely adapted to feeding on flowers. Perhaps I
missed something.
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University
"If cucumbers had anti-gravity,
sunsets would be more interesting"
-- Wesley Elsberry