Re: AAT Theory

HARRY R. ERWIN (herwin@osf1.gmu.edu)
13 Oct 1995 12:06:51 GMT

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu) wrote:
: David Froehlich <eohippus@moe.cc.utexas.edu> writes:

: >How about elephants and rhinos?

(as examples of hairless animals without an aquatic phase in their past)

: Don't rhinos have noses that can close?

No. They're terrestrial browsers adapted (by nose and tongue
specializations) to eating the edible parts of acacia bushes while
avoiding the thorns.

Although elephants are related to the sirenians, they can grow hair (cf.
mammoths) when it is appropriate to the environment, and they have been
terrestrial browsers since at least the Miocene (Gomphotherium).

Something to be aware of--hair can be deleterious in the bush.

--

Harry Erwin

Internet: herwin@gmu.edu 

Home Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin (try a couple of times)

PhD student in comp neurosci: "Glitches happen" & "Meaning is emotional"