Re: A few more...

[Aaron Feuk <feukac@PLU.edu>]

On Tue, 3 Oct 1995, Jeffrey Martz wrote:

> > >You would argue that the hoatzin independantly evolved fingers from all
> > >other tetrapods?  That's taking BCF a little too far...
> > 
> > I would argue that it never lost the fingers.
> > 
>      I know next to nothing about bird evolution.  When were the ungals 
> lost in most birds?  If the hoatzin never lost them, does that make Aves 
> paraphyletic?
> 
> LN Jeff
> 
  Could the  hoatzin be a case of an inactive gene or alleles being 
activated? My Evolution class has gone and is going into great depth on 
genetic evolution and the affect of natural selection of alleles with 
multi-loci. I guess a large question I throw onto the fire is, Could the 
the reactivation of silent alleles "screw up' some of todays theories in 
cladistics, I being a cladist became confused. What can we do? We have 
no DNA(duh), so based on the bones is there any way to make sense of 
 genetics?

I've had a long day,

Aaron Feuk
Preparator, Dept. of Earth Sciences\Geology
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, Wa, 98447
 

PS- Why did you guys have to tell me that the Yorktown Fm whale bones are 
Radioactive, I preped a couple some this spring.