Evolution of hair loss

[Thomas Lammers]

At 10:30 AM 8/20/03 -0400, John Grehan wrote:
>Agreed - they can be viewed as hypotheses - although testing may be
>problematic.

Pretty common in evolution.

>  Evidently hair loss took place at some time so the hypothesis has an
> empirical foundation. Testing when it occured is one matter, why it
> occurred is another. It's the 'why' that gets problematic if the 'why' is
> presented in terms of purpose. As far as I am aware it is not possible to
> test 'purpose' in evolution

Of course not.  It's like dividing by zero -- undefined.  I think the
article writers were just careless in their word choice.


Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-1002
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and biogeography
of the Campanulaceae s. lat.

Webpages:
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/herbarium/herbarium.html
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Resort/7156/lammers.html
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