Re: Florida and fingers

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/18/00 2:53:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
dinogami@hotmail.com writes:

>    I agree that it's a fascinating paper, and yes, has great potential.  
>  However, the paper neither cites, nor can I think of, any actual 
>  evolutionary (i.e., not produced by embryological manipulation in the lab) 
>  examples of the kinds of "frame shifts" he proposes as the mechanism for 
the 
>  digital axial move.

The paper is, of course, extremely heavy on theory, but the _Apteryx_ hands I 
found very intriguing--the way the medial digit sprouts from condensation III 
but sometimes has the form of a digit II, sometimes a digit I, and sometimes 
in between.  I thought this provided the strongest evidence that something 
like what Gauthier proposes could actually have occurred.

Nick P.