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Walking Before Flying

Posted by michael on from the all-that-is-old-is-new-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BYU biostaticians report in Nature their genetic analysis of the insect, known as the 'walking stick', which apparently gives a contrapuntal example of reversible evolution. Called Dollo's Law, the principle holds that the same evolutionary pathway can never be backtracked, because of random mutations. But this insect class first had wings, lost them, then got them back again. So what's next for some humans: a happy return to dragging their knuckles?"

5 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. "Return" to dragging knuckles?? by Shadow2097 · · Score: 3, Funny
    Apparently, whoever wrote that never met any of the jocks at my high school! ;-)

    Back on-topic, it does open up a whole lot of new possibilities as far as evolution goes. The evolutionary tree that is so commonly displayed in high school (and some higher-level) biology books might need some major rethinking.

    -Shadow

  2. So maybe now... by phagstrom · · Score: 4, Funny

    we can learn the answer to the puzzle:

    if a fly couldn't fly, would we call it a 'walk'?

  3. Just look at the GOP! by Archeopteryx · · Score: 2, Funny

    George W. Bush looks like he is about to start dragging HIS knuckles any time now.

    --
    Dog is my co-pilot.
  4. What knuckles? by Pflipp · · Score: 2, Funny

    I want a tail.

    --
    "We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
  5. *heh* by oPless · · Score: 2, Funny

    So what's next for some humans: a happy return to dragging their knuckles?


    Well you yanks (mostly) voted him in!!!