Oolon Colluphid

Wrong, wrong, wrong, Ed.

From Thewissen’s original paper describing Ambulocetus natans (Fossil Evidence for the Origin of Aquatic Locomotion in Archaeocete Whales, Science Vol 263 pp210-212, 1994):
Pipe. Stick in. Smoke.

DT

Ed

The biblical evidence says that he can control them only indirectly and when God allows them.

Doubting Didymus

I'm going to call you on that one. Cite this evidence, please.

Ed

Ok, I'll bite, what is it?

Doubting Didymus

Macroevolution is the patterns that emerge when microevolution occurs on a large scale. The term does not mean large scale morphological change. The progression from australopithecus to modern man, for example, is microevolution. When you look at the history of that evolution, and include the role of ecology, geology, extinctions, and speciation into your analysis, you're thinking about macroevolution.

Ed

No, it depends on the organism and the morphological and genetic characteristics. As we learn more about genetic relationships, it will probably get easier to classify them. A kind can be a genus or family.

Quote:

oc: I wonder whether Ed considers dolphins to be a single kind? I wonder because the family Delphinidae consists of 17 separate genera, and they all look like variations on a theme of dolphin to me.

Probably family in this case.

Quote:

oc: African and Indian elephants (Loxodonta and Elephas) are separate kinds, are they Ed? And yet those two are only as genetically distinct as the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana and the forest elephant (L cyclotis are from each other. See http://home.ncifcrf.gov/ccr/lgd/publ...hant/index.asp

No, they were probably one kind.

Quote:

oc: Is the Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis) a separate kind from the caracal (Caracal caracal)? And if one kind, what of something like the Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) or the puma (Puma concolor)? How about rusty-spotted cats, servals, kokods, ocelots, snow leopards, jaguars, leopards and cheetahs, bobcats, fishing cats and Geoffroy’s cats...? How many kinds, Ed?

Actually the scientific name for the mountain lion or puma is Felis concolor. The canadian lynx and bobcat were probably one kind. I dont have time to go thru the others. I think you get the picture.

Quote:

oc: Are hyaenas and aardwolves one kind, or two?

Probably one.

Quote:

oc: Are foxes and wolves one kind, or two?

Two.

Quote:

oc: If I could be bothered, I could list a few hundred more examples. Maybe Ed could explain...? TTFN, DT

See above.

lpetrich

Nowadays, the mountain lion / cougar / puma is often classified as

Puma concolor

But I somehow don't expect Ed to understand.

Jack the Bodiless

...Despite being more distantly related to each other than humans are to chimps.

Ed, a reminder: it is now nearly two months since you said "there is no fossil C" in your February 26th post, and I challenged you to identify any major gap in the fossil record. Your ongoing failure to identify such a gap is telling.

I am also wondering how many months it will take you to respond to the challenge posted by Doubting Didymus, about Satan's ability to control events:

Duvenoy

Say, this could be fun, if silly.

Reticulated python ((Python reticulatus) , Fea's viper (Azemiops fea), and rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus).

I think we can safely assume three 'kinds' here, depending upon how you define kind. O' course, it could be all just 'snake' kind.

So, let's tighten it up a little bit: First, our tiny friend, the Rock Rattlesnake (C. lepidus), and the slightly larger Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrusus miliarius). And, lets throw in, just for the hell of it, the Ridge-nosed Rattler (C. willardi). Three small, rattling snakes. How many 'kinds'?

Ed, if you're unfamiliar with Rattlesnakes, enough info to make a quick guess can be found in either the Peterson's or the Audubon's field guides. I prefer the Audubons. Also, Klauber's "Rattlesnakes" will give you more than you ever wanted to know about them. Also highly reccommended is Manny Rubio's 'Rattlesnake, Portrat of a Predator".

I suggest a careful study before answering. Snakes can be sneaky.

doov

Oolon Colluphid

Snakes are wonderful!

Specifically, wonderful for an exercise such as this.

This is off the top of my head, as the info is at home, but I'm sure Doov can correct / fill in...

Now, there’s this snake family, the Elapidae. They include kraits, mambas, cobras and coral snakes. Are the genera Micrurus, Naja, Bungarus and Dendroaspis separate kinds? One might think not, because despite the substantial differences between these forms, they all share distinguishing similarities in their fangs and poison glands.

The problem is, these features are also present to varying degrees in other snake families.

And what of sea snakes, the Hydrophiidae? Some experts consider them part of the Elapidae. You can tell an Elapid from a hydrophiids by their choanal processes: elapids have them, Hydrophiids don’t. Except for Dendroaspis mambas, which are Elapids in all but choanal processes.

And, dearest Ed, what about bats? Perhaps you could tell us how many ‘kinds’ of bat there are? Because in the suborder Microchiroptera there are sixteen families and over 750 species. The premaxilla is a main bat taxonomic characteristic.

Do you think these two premaxillae might be from the same ‘kind’?





But they can’t be. Because the first is a member of the Phyllostomidae, the New World leaf-nosed bats; the second is a member of the Molossidae, the free-tailed bats.

Here’s some of the variation just within the Phyllostomidae:

.

All one ‘kind’? How many ‘kinds’ of bat are there Ed? Aren’t they all just the ‘bat kind’? Microchiroptera or Megachiroptera?

TTFN, Oolon (who’s glad to be Oolon again )