RE: Phytodinosauria status

["Gordon Martin Human" <t_gmhuman@agency.com>]

Tim William wrote:

> s up in the gene
> that governs
> the number of fingers in tyrannosaurids, with the result that the
> hand has
> one less finger.  No big deal - the mutation is not harmful to
> the animal,
> so the two-fingered mutation persists.

But if this were true, why do we not find two *and* three fingered
Tyrannosaurs?

cheers, martin



 This mutation (or equivalent
> mutations) may not have occurred in _Carnotaurus_ nor its ancestors.
>
> To couch this in neo-Darwinian terms, "bad" traits are removed by
> selection,
> and "good" traits are retained by selection - but neutral
> mutations (those
> which are neither good nor bad, and have no effect on the organism's
> fitness) may be retained through drift.
>
>
> Tim
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Timothy J. Williams
>
> USDA/ARS Researcher
> Agronomy Hall
> Iowa State University
> Ames IA 50014
>
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> Fax:   515 294 3163
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