Re: Reb Stephen Jay Gould

[philidor11@snet.net]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4418543,00.html

It's in the archive now.
This'll save some searching.

A quote:

Many features of an organism (its phenotype) may also be structural 
spandrels, others may be "exaptations" - another term coined 
by Gould, with Elizabeth Vrba, to describe features arising in 
one context but subsequently put to a different use. Feathers, 
originally evolved as a heat regulatory device among the reptilian 
ancestors of today's birds, are a good example. But to evolutionists, 
who believed every feature of an organism was honed by what Darwin 
called "nature's continuous scrutiny", this claim, and the style 
in which it was delivered, was heretical. 

Where to begin...
How many would vote that feathers began 'as a heat regulatory 
device'?
A show of hands, please.

One of Gould's contributions was tracking down unsupported certainties 
like this and staring at them straight on.
Wish he was around to evaluate his obituaries...



= = = Original message = = =

Steven Rose, 22 May 2002. Stephen Jay Gould. World-renowned popularising 

palaeontologist who, controversially, revised Darwin's theories 
and took a 
political stand on science. The Guardian [UK]. <http://guardian.co.uk>


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