by cyberjesus 52 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Villabolo:
Unenlagia had substantial wing claws, but it was an Ostrich sized creature with smallish wings.
Those of Archaeopteryx are regarded as no more functional than the wing claws of juvenile Hoatzin today (i.e. vestigial) by every source I've read (Even Bakker....)
They had all but disappeared by the time of Eoaluvais.
TD: A very rough analogy I admit but natural selection doesn't have to be parallel in absolutely every detail. We could keep our hands functional because with its manipulative abilities and our brains we have more to gain by keeping them, even if our body maintains bird like form, than by losing them. Not just "natural" selection but social selection. We could maintain societies and technology (even a primitive technology) and that could make sure that any handless mutants remain a tiny minority of the population.
villabolo
Edited: Second sentence corrected.
I was a little perplexed--I felt sorry for the poor little hairy guy who fell
down. Now it's worse--the bird man would evolve from a poor little hairy guy
with a wedgie so bad it'd bring his knees up:
http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_articles/theropod_dinosaurs_evolved_birds_not_likely_says_study
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_people
Excluding any extensive genetic engineering, and just considering breeding for the feature, I'd imagine it would still take vastly long periods of time for humans to even just evolve into gliders. Doable, but for true flight, like TD already mentioned, there are substantial changes needed to our anatomy to make it feasible and efficient. It would have to be deliverate and artificial selection as well, since our creativity allows for other ways to meet environmental challenges instead of permanently physically changing ourselves.
Wouldnt it be more of a selective advantage for us as a species to rework the appendix back to something that could house bacteria that would allow us to extract nutrition from wild grasses? That would be a game changer in alot of ways.
Midget-Sasquatch:
"Wouldnt it be more of a selective advantage for us as a species to rework the appendix back to something that could house bacteria that would allow us to extract nutrition from wild grasses? That would be a game changer in alot of ways."
Midget, the book Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood describes a race of genetically engineered humans that can eat leaves. However, their creator also made them sub-intelligent so that they would not be environmentally destructive.
The problem with anything that increases our reproductive abilities is that we eventually wreak more havoc on the earth. Beside, if we could eat grasses we would be, here in the US at least, in direct competition with cattlemen who would shoot us as varmints as we dine.
villabolo
WHOA NELLIE!!
Languages were all created by Jehovah at Babel.
And don't you dare say otherwise Leolaia. You don't even have the right plumbing for this conversation.
*******************
om, humbly removes ultra-macho JW former-elder hat,
great posts Leo. As usual.
And, Glenster, thanks for the flying vids! What a rush!
om
You don't even have the right plumbing for this conversation.
Oh my LOL...considering I'm teaching right now a course on feminism and sexism in language, I'll keep that in mind. Glad as hell I'm no longer in such a social environment as the JWs....where attitudes like that are actually expressed overtly. But of course overt expression is only the tip of the iceberg....
Villabolo,
Yeah, those cattle ranchers would probably also like to vent their frustrations on us cud chewers since the demand for their products would likely drop.
Then again maybe them texans would find it more sporting to have flying targets. Its in their interests to push for wing evolution.
Seriously though, I'd think being less dependent on certain agricultural products, could mean less land devoted to such, which could translate to an ecologically smaller footprint. So it could be an evolutionary move that would be a plus for us and the rest of the biosphere.
Leo,
Should I let myself be beguiled by your posts? Or should I stick to holy writ? Intelligent women using Italian words versus the GB and their literal readings of Genesis. Conundrum.
No, you need to be beguiled by Toasted Posties, with that delicious wheat flavour you can't get anywhere else! Little do you know you're actually eating..... well a little Archaeopteryx told me, but I promised not to tell.
Even if you did tell me whats in the Toasted Posties, I'd probably still eat them. I'm a sucker for references to evolutionary missing links.
Besides, I swallowed some of the reconstituted bran from the WatchTower for a brief time, so Mikey would eat anything.
P.S. Gotta head off for now. A very good night to you Leo and to the rest.
