Re: Abiogenesis in a lab?Re: TOBS:evolution misdirection

Levy Oates <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> On 17 Nov 2003 16:09:52 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Budikka) wrote:
> 
> >5. What was the designer's purpose inc reating the okapi, an animal
> >that is pretty much what a transitional giraffe would look like? 
> >Again, was he trying to sow confusion?
> 
> I've never come across the okapi before - what a delightful creature! Do
> we know anything about just how closely related it is to the giraffe?
> 
Same family different genus under ordinary taxonomy:

Family Giraffidae 

Genus Giraffa 

Author........ : Brünnich, 1771. 
Citation...... : Zool. Fundamenta, p. 36. 

Type Species.. :Cervus camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758. 

Giraffa camelopardalis 

Author........ : (Linnaeus, 1758). 
Citation...... : Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:66. 
Common Name... : Giraffe 
Original Name. :Cervus camelopardalis .
Distribution.. :Formerly, Gambia and Senegal to Ethiopia and Somalia,
south to Central African Republic, NE Zaire, Uganda and Tanzania; E and
SW Zambia; S Angola, Zimbabwe and S Mozambique to South Africa, mostly
north of the Orange River. Distribution now much restricted; in W Africa
still present at least until recently in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, NE
Nigeria and N Cameroon; in southern Africa, now ranging no further south
than N Namibia, Botswana and E Transvaal (South Africa). 
Type Locality. :"AEligthiopia et Sennar", restricted to Sudan, Sennar,
by Harper (1940 ref :322). 
Comments...... : Reviewed by Dagg (1971 ref , Mammalian Species, 5). 


Genus Okapia 

Author........ : Lankester, 1901. 
Citation...... : Nature, 64:24. 

Type Species.. :Equus johnstoni P. L. Sclater, 1901. 

Okapia johnstoni 

Author........ : (P. L. Sclater, 1901). 
Citation...... : Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1901(1):50. 
Common Name... : Okapi 
Original Name. :Equus johnstoni .
Distribution.. :N and E Zaire; perhaps adjacent areas. 
Type Locality. :Zaire, Semliki Forest, Mundala. 


Both species are the only members of their genus. In effect, they are
sister species.

Data from Mammal Species of the World at the Smithsonian:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/msw/

I can't find any cladograms showing the relations in modern terms, but
here is a page

http://www.biols.susx.ac.uk/ugteach/cws/evol1/giraffe%20lions.htm

and here is a publication on the genetics of the two species (yes,
that's the whole title):

Vermeesch, J. R., W. De Meurichy, H. Van Den Berghe, P. Marynen, and P.
Petit. 1996. Differences in the distribution and nature of the
interstitial telomeric (TTAGGG)n sequences in the chromosomes of the
Giraffidae, okapai (Okapia johnstoni), and giraffe (Giraffa
camelopardalis): evidence for ancestral telomeres at the okapi
polymorphic rob(5;26) fusion site. Cytogenet Cell Genet 72 (4):310-5.
-- 
John Wilkins wilkins.id.au
For long you live and high you fly, 
and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
and all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be