Re: Useless Body Parts? Ok need some help here

From: bivalve <bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com>
Date: Mon Feb 21 2005 - 17:44:50 EST

All "useless" parts and DNA can potentially function as raw material for future evolution. There may also be links between "useless" features and important ones. The gill slits that occur embyonically in terrestrial vertebrates are not useful in and of themselves, but probably are integrated into the general developmental system, with which it is advisable not to meddle too much. Of course, the gill slits also were useful in the ancestral form at some point.

These sorts of usefulness do not appeal to antievolutionists, but they make valid points against claims of support for atheism.

    Dr. David Campbell
    Old Seashells
    University of Alabama
    Biodiversity & Systematics
    Dept. Biological Sciences
    Box 870345
    Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
    bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com

That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
Received on Mon Feb 21 17:45:00 2005

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