Starboy

I think what he was talking about was self-organizing-systems. These occur at energy boundaries in open non-linear systems. There are several such examples such as persistent weather patterns like hurricanes and tornados, patterns on sand dunes, life, Bernard cells, and chemical oscillators. In such systems entropy decreases on a local scale.

Starboy

John Page

1. Use your imagination
2. Where do dreams come from?

Doubting Didymus

Huh?

Godless Dave

I'm not sure your bat ear question can be answered as phrased, because bats evolved from mammals that already had ears.

Jobar

Keith, I'm not sure this is what you are looking for- but we recently discussed the processes which form rock/soil patterns in artic climates, here.

The mechanical sorting processes which produce circular, linear, or labyrinthine patterns are only beginning to be understood, but the patterns formed *look* as if they are designed, when in fact they are no more evidence of intelligence than the sinuous shapes of sand dunes, or the swirling patterns of frost, or the crystalline shapes of snowflakes.

KC

My goodness! This brings up a question that has never occurred to me before: are there any mammals that don't have ears?

KC

Oxymoron

No, but there are some folk who don't listen too good

Oolon Colluphid

Define 'ears'

There's plenty of examples of mammals without external ears (the 'pinna', iirc): cetaceans (whales and dolphins), moles, seals (one way to distinguish seals from sea lions, which do have them), naked mole rats, etc. Basically, if it could get in the way, in water or in a tunnel, then the mammal may well not have them.

I’m not certain, but I very strongly suspect that all mammals have internal ears. This is a confident evolutionary prediction, because the development of the ear bones (malleus, incus and stapes) from jaw bone elements is one of the best examples of something developing from something else in the fossil record... and it occurred in the mammal-like reptiles. The basic -- basal -- condition of mammals, from right back at the group’s inception, is to have these bits.

I expect there are also some ear-less congenital abnormalities too -- but these would be abnormalities.

Cheers, DT

KC

That's pretty much what I thought. So Kieth is pretty much only concerned with how echolocation evolved--not ears.

KC

Oolon Colluphid

Heehee! Maybe Keith would like me to explain a few things about this hypothesised designer...?

Yours ready 'n' waiting, with Typhlomolge and laryngeals loaded and cocked,
DT