Page 106 - The Evolution Impasse 2

104 Origin of Flight

When in sect fos sils first ap pear, in the Cursorial Theory, and The
Middle and Upper Carboniferous, they Transition from Land to the Air
are di verse and for the most part ful ly Myth.
winged. There are a few prim i tive ly
wing less forms, but no con vin cing in -
ter me di ates are known. 99 ORIGIN OF THE HORSES
One im por tant fea ture of those
Until re cent ly, sche mat ic il lus tra -
flies that emerge sud den ly in the fos -
tions of the ev o lu tion of hors es have
sil record is their ex traor di na ry flight
been a prom i nent proof of the the o ry
tech niques. Human be ings can not
of ev o lu tion. Today, how e ver, many
raise and low er their arms ten times
ev o lu tion ists have open ly re fut ed
a sec ond, yet the av er age fly can flap
the va lid i ty of this sce nar io. In 1980,
its wings 500 times a sec ond.
150 ev o lu tion ists at tend ed a four-
Moreover, both wings beat si mul ta -
day meet ing at the Chicago Museum
ne ous ly. The slight est ir reg u lar i ty in
of Natural History in which the
wing beats will up set the in sect's bal -
prob lems as so ci at ed with stage-by-
ance, but this nev er oc curs.
stage ev o lu tion were dis cussed. At
In an article titled "The
that meet ing, Boyce Rensberger stat -
Mechanical Design in Fly Wings," R.
ed that there was no sup port in the
Wootton writes:
fos sil record for the stage-by-stage
The bet ter we un der stand the func tion - ev o lu tion of hors es:
ing of in sect wings, the more sub tle
The pop u lar ly told ex am ple of horse ev -
and beau ti ful their de signs ap pear . . .
o lu tion, sug gest ing a grad u al se quence
Insect wings com bine both in one, us -
of chan ges from four-toed fox-sized
ing com po nents with a wide range of
crea tures liv ing near ly 50 mil lion
elas tic prop er ties, el e gant ly as sem bled
years ago to to day's much larg er one-
to al low ap pro pri ate de for ma tions in
toed horse, has long been known to be
re sponse to ap pro pri ate for ces and to
wrong. Instead of grad u al change, fos -
make the best pos si ble use of the air.
sils of each in ter me di ate spe cies ap pear
They have few if any tech no log i cal par -
ful ly dis tinct, per sist un changed, and
al lels--yet. 100
then be come ex tinct. Transitional
forms are un known. 101
About the "ev o lu tion of the
ORIGIN OF FLIGHT
horse" di a grams, the not ed pa le on -
—See The Arboreal Theory, The tol o gist Niles Eldredge said :

The Evolution Impasse II