Re: Tiktaalik

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> > Replace the taxon names with any taxon names and the time with any time,
> > and I think you have the story of evolution in a nutshell. :-)
>
> I'm not sure I agree.  The kind of transformations we see in the
> fish-amphibian and theropod-bird transitions each involve a major change 
> in
> body plan.  These macroevolutionary events only happen relatively rarely.

I disagree with the whole idea of "macroevolution". The kind of 
transformation I see involves a lot of rather small changes. It's just that 
some of those changes are rare (loss of gills, opercula, gulars, fin rays, 
gain of digits...) and photogenic.

> Thus, taxa like _Archaeopteryx_ and _Tiktaalik_ represent snapshots of
> macroevolutionary change.

Archie used to be a good example. It has become a quite bad one. Where's the 
difference to *Microraptor* and *Graciliraptor* and *Jinfengopteryx*...?