Re: Quote Mine Project - Part II

gen2rev wrote:

> On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 02:05:43 +0000 (UTC), catshark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
[snip[


>>>"Although Archaeopteryx is often proposed as a transitional form, "its
>>>fossils do not count." Punctuated Equilibria, 1977.
>>>
>>Don't know if this is separate or somehow linked to the above quotes.  If
>>nothing else this idiot won't make it easy.
>>
> 
> Gould (and Eldredge, 1977) didn't write the passage quoted above. What
> they *did* write is:
> 
>      At the higher level of evolutionary transition between basic
>      morphological designs, gradualism has always been in trouble,
>      though it remains the "official" position of most Western
>      evolutionists. Smooth intermediates between _Bauplane_ are
>      almost impossible to construct, even in thought experiments;
>      there is certainly no evidence for them in the fossil record
>      (curious mosaics like _Archaeopteryx_ do not count).
> 
> It's now obvious that Gould and Eldredge weren't arguing against
> _Archaeopteryx_ being a transitional form, but arguing that it wasn't an
> example of a gradual change between body plans. They state that it's a
> mosaic, a mixture of both primitive and advanced features. But did Gould
> believe that _Archaeopteryx_ was a transitional form? He did indeed, as
> can be seen in his article "The Tell-tale Wishbone" (Gould 1980).


I think they're making even less of an argument than you say. I think 
they're saying it's not a smooth intermediate, meaning a creature 
exactly intermediate in all respects. The creationist caricature 
requires that each and every character evolve at exactly the same rate, 
instead of different characters changing at different times and at 
different rates. Because Archaeopteryx (together with its various more 
primitive and derived relatives) *is* evidence for a gradual change 
between body plans, and one that was caught more or less in the middle.

 
> REFERENCES
> 
> Gould, S. J. 1980. The Tell-tale Wishbone. In "The Panda's Thumb: More
> Reflections in Natural History", pp 267-277. New York: W. W. Norton &
> Company, Inc. (Originally published in the November, 1977 edition of
> Natural History)
> 
> Gould, S. J., & Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and
> mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3:115-151.
> 
> 
> [snip the rest]
> 
>