Re: Neoteny was Re: god makes hubey

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
22 Nov 1995 18:19:47 -0500

chris brochu <gator@mail.utexas.edu> writes:

>Since I've never seen anyone extrapolate our future descendents, I'm not
>quite sure how you come to this decision. (And isn't "future descendent"

Extrapolation can be done in space or time. Extrapolate the shape
of the skull from dog, chimp, human. It's too obvious. See
D'Arcy Thompson, 1927.

>a bit repetitive and redundant because it says the same thing more than
>once? I've never seen a "past descendent.")

Descendent is relative to the progenitor, future refers to time.

>In any event, your post reveals a thorough misunderstanding of
>heterochrony. Paedomorphosis does not mean "descendent A will look like
>ancestor B;" rather, it means "descendent A will possess a character at
>maturity that was lost during earlier ontogenetic stages by descendent
>B."

Which animals looked like human babies?

Which animals looked like chimp babies?

Are we looking for some fossils that we know should exist?

-- 





				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey