Re: Crocs regrowing their tails

[Nick Longrich <nrlongri@midway.uchicago.edu>]

There was a presentation at SICB where they were talking about salamander
tails. Apparently, they lengthen the tail over time not by lengthening the
individual vertebrae over time, but by adding extra vertebrae over the
lifespan of the animal.
        It's stuff like that which tends to give you pause when you think
you have maybe kind of sort of almost begun to get an idea of what
evolution and development can do when you put them in a room together. (And
makes me wonder why on earth some people I've talked to in the past have
been so reluctant to consider ideas like the one that the Archaeopteryx
tail could be primitive relative to the dromaeosaur one! Or, for that
matter, that we know how digits "had" to have evolved...)

        -N