However, if running up slopes were a major selective factor, then one would expect increased musculature in the hindquarters to drive the legs. Then greater slopes could be scaled simply by momentum. Also, the extra weight of the muscles would increase traction automatically. These effects are probably the main reason the older birds are better slope climbers. However, increasing the weight on the hindquarters of a dinosaur is precisely the wrong way to turn it into a bird. In fact, the heaviness of dinosaur hindquarters is a major argument, even by evolutionists, against the theropod ancestry of birds. All this analysis shows how much evolutionary theorizing is ‘just-so’ story-telling. However, this is tolerated because they ‘have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism’, as Lewontin admits candidly. Dial’s story would entail small running dinosaurs in a wonderful environment, with a handy gradation of inclined planes. Here, natural selection would supposedly gradually craft an improvement in wing-assisted traction—while mysteriously ignoring the greater effects of weight-assisted traction and muscle-assisted speed! creation/yet-another-flap-about-dino-to-bird-evolution
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:31:15 +0000
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