[nmh]

This guy is nuttier than a fruitcake!

He's good for a laugh. I'll try to remember his name so as to avoid nonsense.

[muawiyah]

Anytime anyone points to "......key rules....." the smart guys do some research and get their doctorates the easy way.

Today I was reading an article where the writer was referring quite comfortably to "insertions, deletions, and mutations" as the source of new or different genes.

That's pretty new stuff ~ 10 years ago they'd have accused you of dipping too much snuff if you included "deletions" or "insertions" with "mutations".

So, stick insects turn their wings on and off ~ through time ~ so much for "...... key rules......".

[RightWhale]

one of the key rules of evolution - that complex anatomical features do not disappear and reappear over the course of time

Somebody is making up rules on the fly.

[RightWhale]

one of the key rules of evolution - that complex anatomical features do not disappear and reappear over the course of time

Somebody is making up rules on the fly.

[My2Cents]

stick insects have lost their wings, then re-evolved them.

Genetic traits may submerge for a time, but then re-emerge, indicating that the trait was probably never lost in the first place.

[Daralundy]

ping

Another factor is while living things existing today had ancestors, not all fossils had descendants. Or we can't be sure that the fossils without wings were the ancestors of the later fossils with wings. There may always have been a few insects with wings around. Very few living things actually end up fossilized.

[mtbopfuyn]

But Whiting's analysis shows that the very first stick insect, which appeared 300 million years ago, had already lost its wings

Huh, how could the very first one have already lost its wings???

[dangus]

" received wisdom "

Is that sorta like the Textus Receptus?

[tet68]

Well, we know that brains seem to come and go in democrats
all the time...