Re: Speciation - how do you know?

Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 20 Oct 96 17:24:35 GMT

In article <326A45C7.71DB@megafauna.com>
steve@megafauna.com "Stephen Barnard" writes:

> Having never eaten cockles *with* a pin I can't imagine. One thing I
> know for sure, though: I wouldn't just pop them in my mouth and crunch
> them up.

If it was choice between that and starvation, (and especially if
you had big jaws and teeth) you'd have second thoughts.

The other method would be to crunch them up with stones, and then
try to pick out the meat. In doing that, you almost certainly
put a fair amount shell bits into your mouth.

> When I eat oysters on the half-shell (one of my favorite things) I'll
> occasionally get a bit of shell in my mouth. I certainly don't try to
> chew it up. I spit it out.

It's not the chewing, it's the occasional bite on the sharp end
of a hard bit of shell. A population that consumed this sort of
diet would soon end up with harder teeth, than if they stuck to
the "chimp diet" of fruit, honey, nuts, termites and leaves.
That's all I'm saying. That's all that needs saying.

Paul.