|
|
Re: AAT a bust
Sean Stinson (sstinson@uoguelph.ca)
27 Sep 1995 18:05:06 GMT
James H. Sammons III (jsammons@liberty.uc.wlu.edu) wrote:
For one thing look at the feet! Why would aquatic apes
: have evolved more compact narrow feet if they were supposedly using them
: to swim.
Sean replied,
>Take a look at a blue whale's bone structure. The bones of the
feet are vestigial features, ie.) useless minimized floating bones
(Raven & Johnson,(1992),Biology 3rd e.,Publ. Mosby, pg396)
> This most certainly implies that evolving into an aquatic mammal
does not require the development of large webbed feet. In fact
I can't think of any aquatic mammals that have larged webbed or finned
hind appendages. In fact *all* of them have front fins, and no back fins,
ex., whale, dolphin, seals, elephant seal,..even penguins (bird family, I
know) have tiny "stubby" little feet, even though they require them for
terrestrial locomotion. They rely on their forefins to propel themselves.
In our case we have long fingers as would be suggested by the above, and
minimized hind structures as would also be suggested by the above.
It might also be noted that penguins who have evolved an
aquatic lifestyle are also bipedal in their terrestrial locomotion,
as are polar bears.
|