Adaptive values Selaginellaceae

[Daniel Janzen]

The nice thing about plants is that they demonstrate that you can be highly
successful without a brain.

Dan Janzen






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>Date:         Wed, 28 Jul 1999 08:28:25 -0400
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>From: John Grehan <jrg13 at PSU.EDU>
>Subject:      Adaptive values Selaginellaceae
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>
>  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.
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>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
>