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Fast Fish Evolved Similar Design Separately
Science - Reuters ^ | 2004-05-05 | Patricia Reaney

Posted on 05/05/2004 1:52:07 PM PDT by Junior

LONDON (Reuters) - Great white sharks and tuna have a similar build for speed despite evolving separately for millions of years, scientists said Wednesday.

"Nature does it best in terms of design," said Jeanine Donley of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. "It is amazing that they have developed to be so similar."

Lamnid sharks, which include mako and great whites, have been separated on the evolutionary tree from bony fishes, such as tuna, for over 400 million years. But the muscles and tendons that enable them to swim so fast are remarkably similar.

"Tunas and lamnid sharks have a body form that represents an extreme in biomechanical design for high-performance swimming," Donley said.

Lamnid sharks, which inhabit tropical to cold temperate waters in almost all seas, and tuna diverged from their ancestors in the design of their swimming features millions of years ago.

Their specialized features distinguish them from nearly all other fish and make them more like each other than their closest relatives.

The team, who reported their results in the science journal Nature, used video footage of sharks swimming in a tunnel and a device that measures muscle length during movement.

They believe it was evolutionary selection that allowed them to swim at high speed with a minimum of movement.

"There are body shapes...the roundness, the degree of tapering, even the tail shape, that you can calculate what would be approximately the most efficient for steady, straight swimming or burst swimming," Donley said.

"These two types of fish have this particular type of body shape which is ideal for hydromechanical efficiency."

Commenting on the research, Adam Summers of the University of California, Irvine, said scientists have been speculating on the similarities between tuna and mako sharks for decades.

"Understanding the mechanisms behind their locomotion could lead to high-speed autonomous underwater vehicles," he added.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: crevo; crevolist
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1 posted on 05/05/2004 1:52:08 PM PDT by Junior
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To: PatrickHenry; VadeRetro; RadioAstronomer; Ichneumon
Patrick, if you'd do me the honors...
2 posted on 05/05/2004 1:52:44 PM PDT by Junior (Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else.)
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To: VadeRetro; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Physicist; LogicWings; Doctor Stochastic; ..
PING. [This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and some other science topics like cosmology. Long-time list members get all pings, but can request evo-only status. New additions will be evo-only, but can request all pings. FReepmail me to be added or dropped. Specify all pings or you'll get evo-pings only.]
3 posted on 05/05/2004 1:54:29 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (A compassionate evolutionist!)
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To: Junior
They believe it was evolutionary selection

Religion is religion.

4 posted on 05/05/2004 1:54:32 PM PDT by biblewonk (No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.)
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To: Junior
Hmmm, common design.... common Designer?
5 posted on 05/05/2004 1:55:38 PM PDT by FLcitizen
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To: flrepublican
Hmmm, common design.... common Designer?

Hmmm, common design.... common process!

6 posted on 05/05/2004 1:57:19 PM PDT by balrog666 (A public service post.)
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To: flrepublican
...mind numbing, isn't it?
7 posted on 05/05/2004 1:57:23 PM PDT by Anomaly in Illinois (Never Forget!)
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To: Junior
"Nature does it best in terms of design,"

Nature does nothing -"nature" does not exist. "Nature" is a word used to describe the material part of all existence. There is no entity we can call "nature" that is supposedly doing anything. And "nothing" can't "design". Design is the product of intelligence, not chance. This statement in nonsense! Typical of scientists with materialistic presuppositions.

8 posted on 05/05/2004 1:59:40 PM PDT by LiteKeeper
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To: Junior
The author used the word "design" four times in the article.

Kind of hard to get away from that word in a story like this.
9 posted on 05/05/2004 2:03:57 PM PDT by fishtank
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To: Anomaly in Illinois
"Nature does it best in terms of design,"

They even resort to anthropomorphisms and it STILL doesn't occur to them.

I just completed R.C. Sproul's "Not a Chance". He contends that in the rush to divest God of any role in our affairs we have adopted a paradigm where action and purpose are ascribed to "chance".

For instance, Sproul points out that the results of a given coin toss is NOT a chance event. It is simply a physical event so complicated, and with so many uncontrolled variables, that we consider it a chance event. The reality is that it is simply an event which we have not chosen to calculate. However, we act as if "chance" acts as an agent to actively randomize the result. There is no such agent in the universe.

10 posted on 05/05/2004 2:11:08 PM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: the_Watchman
chance = providence

(I have the flu & that's the best I can do today. *g* Not a Chance sounds like an interesting book)
11 posted on 05/05/2004 2:27:44 PM PDT by Anomaly in Illinois (Never Forget!)
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To: PatrickHenry
Thanks for the ping!
12 posted on 05/05/2004 2:29:49 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: fishtank
The problem is, many creationists conflate the author's word choice with scientific declaration.
13 posted on 05/05/2004 2:30:57 PM PDT by Junior (Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else.)
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To: Junior
There are a lot of commonalities in biology.

Eyes and Wings are two others.

14 posted on 05/05/2004 2:31:07 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Resolve to perform what you must; perform without fail that what you resolve.)
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To: Junior
It's called convergent evolution- Similar structures arising independently.
15 posted on 05/05/2004 2:37:27 PM PDT by Wacka
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To: Junior

I'll say it did. You can't even tell it's fish at all.

What's that? Oh, not 'fast food fish?'

Nevermind.

16 posted on 05/05/2004 2:40:14 PM PDT by Petronski (Hubris knows no editor.)
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To: Wacka
Exactly. This is one reason ichthyosaurs and dolphins share such similar body styles.
17 posted on 05/05/2004 2:40:43 PM PDT by Junior (Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else.)
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To: Junior
"evolving separately for millions of years"..."Nature does it best in terms of design,"

Compare that to the few hundred years it took man to fly and then fly to the moon....I'll take the human development cycle over the evolutionary one.

18 posted on 05/05/2004 2:41:03 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Islam: Nothing BEER couldn't cure.)
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To: Centurion2000
Behold a Model A Ford pickup and a new Ford F150. The DESIGN has evolved but both had a DESIGNER! It would be foolish to assume that the pickup truck changed due to natural selection over 75 years.
19 posted on 05/05/2004 2:41:46 PM PDT by CobraJet
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To: Chewbacca
ping
20 posted on 05/05/2004 2:42:11 PM PDT by null and void (Overturned, upset, kicked upside the head, sucker-punched, b-slapped and totally redefined the world)
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