Re: Mesozoic snow?

[Aidan Karley <aidan_karley@yahoo.co.uk>]

In article <cb253ccaf208.caf208cb253c@texas.rr.com>,  wrote:
> Hmmm... that's alot of trouble to go to for display.  Seems like they 
> would just have evolved bright colors adn funny horns for that.
>
       And a ceratopsian's frill isn't a lot of trouble?
       A Bird of Paradise's train (which can be so large as to be a 
hinderance to flight)?
       The jaws of the [I forget the name. It's in Voyage of the Beagle, 
one of the few illustrations. Or is it On the Origin ... found it - 
Chalcosoma atlas, Descent of Man, figure 16, which compares the male and 
female of the species. See also the next 4 figures.] beetle, which can 
be pretty much the same size as the body in the male and are used for 
display, not mastication. (The jaws of the females are quite normally 
proportioned in contrast.
       
       Darwin devotes a considerable amount of attention to 
demonstrating the extent of sexual selection, and it's pervasiveness 
through the animal kingdom, and for a good reason - it is a very 
powerful force in moulding the structure of animals.
       
       (I choose my latter examples purely because there's a radio 
program about Darwin's [great-]^5-grandson wandering around the 
Galapagos in great^5-granddad's footsteps. See 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/rams/thu2002.ram but you'll need 
Real Player )
       
       "... whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the 
fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most 
beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
       
-- 
 Aidan Karley,
 Aberdeen, Scotland,
 Location: 57°10' N,  02°09'  W (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233
 Written at Thu, 16 Jun 2005 20:11 +0100



        
        
                
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