Re: Dawkins' video

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Sat, 13 Jun 1998 21:18:39 -0500

At 03:34 PM 6/13/98 -0700, Cliff Lundberg wrote:
>Glenn R. Morton wrote:
>
>> >CL: I would think that adding one bit of information is not a significant
>> >increase, given the size of genomes.
>
>> Now you get picky. The above example is valid for autopolyploidy. In
>> allopolyploidy the information increase is very significant.
>
>Well, when an argument involves mathematical logic, pickiness may
>crop up.

That would be fine if we were actually using the mathematics, which we aren't.

>I suspect allopolyploidy may have been very important in
>the macroevolutionary events prior to the Cambrian explosion. This
>is a mechanism through which exotic combinations of features might
>occur in a genome. Presumably a lineage formed through polyploidy
>could, once established, revert to diploidy without losing much.

this is an interesting concept. When you get right down to it, there is
very little difference in complexity between an invertebrate and a human,
so you may be on to something here.

glenn

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