In a message dated 4/19/01 12:00:04 AM, kbmill@ksu.edu writes:
<< But these transition are well documented in the fossil record. Documented
transitions include the origin of tetrapods from panderidicthyids, the
transition from primitive ungulates to whales, and the transition from
terrestrial anguimorph lizards to mosasaurs. There are quite a range and
diversity of environments that are neither terrestrial nor marine and it is
in these environments that the transitional species are quite well adapted.
For example, it seems quite clear now that the earliest tetrapods were not
terestrial and that limbs evolved for clambering in shallow water.
Keith >>
Thanks for the update, Keith. You speak of the "range of environments" as if
it were an established fact. What are they? Wetlands? What else is there?
I would appreciate any references you have on these points. Moreover, so
what? If there were in fact a range of environments, would the animal not
stay in the one it was best adapted to and ignore the rest? Or are you
suggesting that these environments appeared sequentially and that the animal
was forced by necessity to adapt to the current one?
The flipper transition is only one of a whole host of others that had to be
coordinated to produce the whale from whatever its precursor was. You know
what these changes were and the magnitude of the problem of coordinating
them. But I don't believe you have addressed the problem. Do you really
believe that these coordinated changes were brought about by random mutations
(with respect to the future) selected by whatever environment, or genetic
drift, or any other undirected process?
I have read before that you believe God is involved even in random events,
such as random mutations. I agree with that. But does that mean that (1)
God actually directs random events, i.e., chooses and brings about which ones
he/she wants to have effected, or (2) that God merely knows what the outcome
will be? If (1) then you have _directed_ evolution, and that's a far cry fro
m what the mainstream evolutionary biological community believes, if my
understanding of it is correct.
Thanks again for your comments.
Bob
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