Thursday, April 01, 2021
Right for dubious reasons
For a century, biology has considered starfish to be the closest major group to vertebrates. This never seemed right on an intuitive basis, and a new gene-based approach agrees that it's not right.
This article runs through a statistical analysis of constants vs variables in genes, and finds that chordates are closer to insects and mollusks, and farther from echinoderms. I'm not especially convinced by the stat approach, but their conclusion is correct.
When you look at things from the PURPOSE angle, the relationships are clear.
What do vertebrates accomplish? What do echinoderms accomplish? What do insects and mollusks accomplish?
Echinoderms are the outcast in this view.
Vertebrates, insects and mollusks are all capable of high intelligence and intricate manipulation of their environment. Echinoderms don't do any of that. They mostly sit on the seafloor and wait for food to come into their tentacles.
All PURPOSES were available in the original genome, just as all FEATURES are available in the first technology or the first language. Descendants pick distinct groups from the original tree of PURPOSE, and later descendants along each branch gradually lose features. When two branches share lots of PURPOSES, they're more likely to be closely connected.
Labels: Blinded by Stats, Grand Blueprint
¶ 12:46 AM
