RE: Digit Loss

[Oscar Quill <stonebugdotnet@yahoo.com>]

--- Tracy Ford <dino.hunter@home.com> wrote:

> But they don't. The fingers have good claws, strong
> fore-limbs.
> Tyrannosaurus rex has larger arms in relation to
> it's body than many earlier
> tyrannosaurids.


Interesting.  Which tyrannosaurids have shorter
forelimb proportions than T. rex?


...
> If life is just a act of mutations (which is the
> drift I get from this
> thread) then why is there so many body morphs that
> keep cropping up during
> evolution? I'm noticing more and more of this.
> Estemmenosuchids and wart
> hogs, Long skulled labyrinthodonts, phytosaurs and
> gavials, and numerous
> others. How can all this be just an act of mutation?
> Question open to group
> discussion.


Perhaps these body shapes are strange attractors by
way of these animals' inhabiting similar environments,
living similar lifestyles, etc.  Obviously there's
still differences, but perhaps as a general rule,
certain physical attributes can be expected to evolve
independently again and again simply by virtue of
being the best means of adaptation to a particular way
of living, feeding, etc.

=====
.oO=-Oscar Quill is a nom de something for Scott Elyard-=Oo.
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