Re: Amargasaurus...

[Erik Omtvedt <omtvedt@mail.com>]

>  Evolution doesn't always happen in the best way possible.
>  Animals don't plan out their evolutionary strategies.Variations >  occur 
> randomly, and natural selection weeds out the unfit
>  variations. 

Yes and no. It isn't practical to look at life's creativity as any kind of 
mistake, to "try better next time around". Yes, unfit variations are weeded out 
through time, but chances are an animal as successful as a large sauropod 
(among the most successful of any animal group ever to roam the planet) would 
hardly develop such a fantastic "mutation"...as it sounds like you are 
saying...without some sort of adaptive need.  Granted, there is trial and 
error, but look at the scale and magnitude we are talking about. Not just the 
overall size, mind you, but the dimension of the feature in proportion to the 
animal. Is there any animal alive today which caries around such an obvious 
"burden" as this, I wonder?

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