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From: JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.chem
Subject: "Primitive" != Unevolved (was Re: Forgotten Entities...)
Message-ID: <90307.154236JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET>
Date: 3 Nov 90 20:42:36 GMT
References: <4578@husc6.harvard.edu>
Organization: Miami University - Academic Computer Service
Lines: 21

With respect to apparently primitive critters in vent communities
and such. This is a bugaboo that I run into in my intro bio courses
all the time; there is this idea that phylogenetically "primitive"
organisms somehow stopped evolving when they arose...the idea being,
I suppose, that sharks arose several hundred million years ago and
just stopped changing. This is absurd, it is equivalent to saying
that humans evolved from chimpanzees. Obviously not true, unless
humans evolved yesterday....it is correct to say that humans and
chimpanzees evolved from some common ancestor in the not terribly
distant past, however. Sharks, archaebacteria, sponges, humans,
that we see around us today, are all equally primitive and all
equally highly-evolved. Mere semantics? Maybe. But I'm feeling
grumpy today...humor me.
 
Right. I'm done complaining. Carry on....
 
Josh Hayes, Zoology Department, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056
voice: 513-529-1679      fax: 513-529-6900
jahayes@miamiu.bitnet, or jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu
"It is always wise to remember that it was the gods who put
 nipples on men, seeds in pomegranates, and priests in temples."