Re: [asa] Article - Odd Fish Find Contradicts Intelligent-Design Argument

The original article is at

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7201/abs/nature07108.html

Nature 454, 209-212 (10 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07108

The evolutionary origin of flatfish asymmetry
Matt Friedman

and a better summary is at

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7201/full/454169a.html

Basically, a transitional flatfish has been confirmed in the fossil
record. Modern flatfish (flounder, sole, etc.) start out as
normal-looking young, but as they grow one eye migrates over to the
other side and they develop a pigmentation pattern with color on one
side. They then spend much of their time lying on the seafloor on the
pale, eyeless side. Careful study of some fossils has turned up
proto-flatfish in which one eye is near the edge but still on the
other side from the more normally placed eye. It's guessed that they
used their fins to prop up rather than being flat on the seafloor with
one eye in the mud.

Confusion about the definition of ID is even worse among its popular
following.

I'm not sure why they claim that transitional forms are rare in the
fossil record.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.