In article <E0EB61288774D411B76C00D0B723E2BF08974E at exchange.converse.edu>,
doug.jensen at converse.edu says...
> Just a few thoughts...
> 1. Could the sclereids serve not to deter herbivory entirely, but to limit
> it to certain animals?
> 2. Could the sclereids have served to limit or deter herbivory prior to
> ripening, and have no function in the mature fruit?
> 3. Could they have been inherited from a distant ancestor who did use them
> for something?
> 4. Could the sclereid gene have been planted in the fruit by someone as a
> joke or as a ploy to increase the marketing potential of some product?
>> I'm pretty bad at quotes, but D'Arcy Thompson said something to the effect
> of "Everything is the way it is because it got that way." I know that it is
> annoying to students when we tell them that the purpose of a structure is
> for "taxonomic purposes" or to show "biological variation," but sometimes
> that is the best we can do. Furthermore, it is a mistake for us and our
> students to assume that everything does have a function.
>
Like when my students look at the corky wings on a winged elm branch and I
tell them that millions of years ago adult elm trees used to fly from place
to place in order to find better habitat.
D. Haas
