Re: Lizard engines and rat engines

g wrote:

> "g" <gillawton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:...
>
>>"dkomo" <dkomo871@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>news:daghdr$23qu$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>>Everybody knows reptiles are cold blooded and mammals are warm blooded,
>>>but not too many people are aware just how exorbitant are the energy
>>>demands of the heat engines that are the bodies of mammals.
>>>
>>>Typically, mammals require ten times the energy to run their bodies at
>>>their rated 37 degrees C (98.6 degrees F) as reptiles do, using basal
>>>metabolic rate as a comparison.
>>>
>>>Chris Lavers in his _Why Elephants Have Big Ears_
>
>
>>> --dkomo@xxxxxxxx
>>>
>>
>>dkomo,
>
>
> What I said previously may seem to have strayed away from your point, so let
> me bring it home to the point.
>
> It just jars me to see someone build an article on a title implying an
> answer
> to a question of "why" about anything evolution has done.
>
> "Why do elephants have big ears?"
>

And it jars me to see someone make a statement like this, which to me is
akin to ignorance. Elephants have big ears for very *specific* reasons.
Being so large and living under the blistering sun of the African
savannah, African elephants have severe problems with potential
overheating. Their ears are an important way of dissipating much of
this body heat.

And other parts of the elephant's body are also specific adaptations
which are consistent with his huge bulk. It's quite easy to see how
evolution proceeded in each case. Read the book for the details.

> Because in the process of mutating they mutated in ways that happened to be
> very successful in the scenarios existing for elephants (proto-elephants...
> players
> that were progenitors of elephants... or whatever...) in the particular
> order of
> increments, at the particular times and places, where big ears provided an
> advantage, or an excess of advantages over disadvantages.
>

And an answer like this, while true, is so non-specific as to be useless.

"Daddy, Daddy, why is the sky blue."

"Because, Johnny."

"But why is it blue?"

"Because that's just the way it is."

"But why?"

"Shut up and get back in the car."

> Lest we the author (or anyone else) get carried away with taking a single
> player out of the context of all the rest, he has not addressed all the
> issues if
> he offers to explain WHY elephants developed big ears and WHY dinosaurs
> (assuming some were warm-blooded) did NOT.
>

Dinosaurs, even though they lived in a hot climate, did not produce the
large amount of internal body heat as elephants because dinosaurs were
reptiles. So they didn't need special cooling adaptations.

> If you take what I said above and put a not in it, you will see how I would
> hope
> to account for the lack of big ears on dinosaurs...
>

> Here let me do it for you. I will cut and paste and make the necessary
> changes
> in caps...
>
> Because in the process of mutating they DID NOT MUTATE IN WAYS THAT
> PRODUCED BIG EARS AT A TIME AND PLACE THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN
> very successful in the scenarios existing for DINOSAURS (proto-DINOSAURS...
> players
> that were progenitors of DINOSAURS... or whatever...) in the particular
> order of
> increments, at the particular times and places, where big ears WOULD HAVE
> provided
> an advantage, or an excess of advantages over disadvantages.
>

Again, this is basically a useless answer because it is so general.
Good answers are out there if you look for them.



--dkomo@xxxxxxxx


> Oh, well... it did take more than just inserting the word "not."
>
> But the point is... one does not make a case for something's having occurred
> in one
> species as having been the result of a WHY, if he fails to account for WHY
> it did
> NOT occur for all OTHER species who had similar characteristics.
>
> UNLESS... of course... you would wish to offer that as an argument for why
> there
> were no warm-blooded dinosaurs.
>
> It's kind of like a chess game. When you move ONE piece, whether that is a
> "good"
> move or a "bad" move involves more than whether your opponent then is
> enabled to
> make a single move and yell, "Check !"
>
> Too many so-called explanations for things that evolved for one species fail
> to take
> into account all the other pieces on the board... but for a board having
> exponentially
> more "squares" and kinds of "chess pieces" than a simply little ol' chess
> board.
>
>
> g



.

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