Tuesday, 18 February 2014
New Evolution Story: “We Have Four Limbs Because We Have a Belly”
Darwinian tales are intriguing. Science Daily features a new story that attempts to explain why we have four limbs.
The answer, my friend, is not blowing in the wind. You can see it in the mirror. It’s your stomach:
“All of us backboned animals -- at least the ones who also have jaws -- have four fins or limbs, one pair in front and one pair behind. These have been modified dramatically in the course of evolution, into a marvelous variety of fins, legs, arms, flippers, and wings. But how did our earliest ancestors settle into such a consistent arrangement of two pairs of appendages? -- Because we have a belly. Researchers in the Theoretical Biology Department at the University of Vienna and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research have presented a new model for approaching this question in the current issue of the journal Evolution & Development.”
While the article classifies humans as animals, it also acknowledges that there is marvellous variety in the animal kingdom. It also admits some sort of teleology or goal-orientation, which does not match the blind watchmaker view of neo-Darwinism.
“You could say that the reason we have four limbs is because we have a belly,” researcher Laura Nuño de la Rosa summarises the findings of her research team.
When people are reluctant to let a divine foot in the door, they will have to resort to all kinds of speculations. Some of them are wilder than others. Some have a completely unnecessary Darwinian attachment.
How did we get four limbs? Because we have a belly Science Daily. January 27, 2014.