Adaptive values Selaginellaceae

[John Grehan]

  But that tells us
nothing about the original adaptive reason (or lack thereof) for the
character. IMHO the ligule in Selaginella is vestigial; I imagine that one
might find a species or two in which it serves some function. But none of
that addresses why there is a ligule.
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Curtis Clark



I would suggest that its a matter of personal faith that functional
states of characters are necessarily the reason why they exist.
Its possible that the function exists as a result of the character
or structure existing in the first place. Asking why something
exists seems close to asking why do we exist - a sort of philosophical
or religous question rather than a subject of empirical enquiry.

John Grehan