Re: Exaptation and cookie cutters
David Froehlich (eohippus@moe.cc.utexas.edu)
Fri, 6 Oct 1995 11:23:19 -0500
On 5 Oct 1995, Thomas Clarke wrote:
> Did my response to his post make it out? No one has commented
> about the what I said concerning the implausability of his
> picture of the "first family" drowning.
I will admit it seemed pretty implausible.
>
> > There is a story about some archaeologists in the US who believed that
> > atlatl hooks and weights were fish net hooks and net spacers used to
> > make fishing nets. To prove their point they used them to make a
> > rather nice fishing net.
>
> Nice story. So what were the atlatl hooks and weights for?
Throwing spears maybe???
>
> Don't you have any fun in science? Are you limited only to what
> is absolutely, iron-clad provable on the basis of well deocumented
> obsdrvation? No speculation allowed?
>
If it is speculation and you cannot test it it is not science. That
doesn't mean that you cannot have fun, it just means that you must frame
your questions in terms of a testable proposition. This seems to be the
basic disconect between the pro AAS camp and the dirty nasty
proffesionals who are always ganging up on them. Just because a theory
is -fun- doesn't make it good, or usefull, or even all that interesting.
David J. Froehlich Phone: 512-471-6088
Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory Fax: 512-471-5973
J.J. Pickle Research Campus
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712
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