From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Thu May 08 2003 - 10:17:21 EDT
gerald_a_levy wrote: > Paul C wrote on Wednesday, May 07: > > Eyes in vertebrates are systematically connected to the primary > > visual cortex and cannot function without it. Thus it is clear > > eyes are specific and particular form of development of the > > vertebrate nervous system, and in consequence - appearances > > to the contrary, molluscs are eyeless. > Indeed mollusks are eyeless. The point was that molluscs are not eyeless, the cephalopod eye being classically given as an example of convergent evolution. But one of the most interesting genetic discoveries of the last 10 years was that there is a conserved homeobox gene Pax-6 in mice, eyeless in drosophila, aneridia in humans etc, that induces the development of eyes in all metzoans, thus rather than being convergent share a common genetic determination with our own. > But, who was talking aboutmollusks? I was constructing an analogue of your argument in a different domain from which a demonstrably false conclusion could be drawn. -- Paul Cockshott Dept Computing Science University of Glasgow 0141 330 3125
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