Re: paleonet Fossils/molecular data: Seeking Thread. Whales

[TomDeVrie@xxxxxxx]

Dear Jere,

Thanks for the advice.  The thread may still serve an educational purpose, if 
only to show (1) tension, and (2) personal invective intruding on a rational 
discourse.  For high school students unfamiliar with scientists or amateurs 
so hyped about their ideas, it can be instructive to expose them to such 
arguments.

My course will unfold the paleo story of whales elaborated over the past 20 
years, saving the most recent discovery until after an analyssis of the 
molecular data.  There are papers from the mid and late 90s that attempt to 
synthesize both data sets.  As I recall, some weaknesses in molecular data 
came from a failure to analyze the specific base positions that lead to 
strange teees.  Nonetheless, the molecular people did make the right call on 
whales' closest sister group, even before the fossil was found to confirm the 
connection.

Your old LA school buddy, Rod Mitchell (maybe different first name then - 
hung out with Ed Mitchell - no relation - as well) has moved from our high 
school dept. to the University of Puget Sound 
(http://www.ups.edu/biology/faculty/mitchell.htm).  Speaking of whales, he 
was Larry Barnes's high school teacher in Colorado.

Tom DeVries

Thomas J. DeVries
Adjunct Research Associate
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195 USA
tomdevrie@aol.com