<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 2:32 PM, rex </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:rex@nosyntax.net" target="_blank">rex@nosyntax.net</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"> <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Many aspects of evolutionary theory are testable.</blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Yes.</font></div><br></div><div> <div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>ideas/theories that cannot, in principle, be falsified have no place</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
in science.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In principle you could surgically attach fiberglass antlers that were 9 feet wide and weighed 90 ponds onto a modern elk, the animal would get them for free and wouldn't have to pay the metabolic cost of growing them each year as a Irish Elk did; but even so I don't think you'd have to wait long to observe a drop in survival rates compared with elk without the huge prosthesis. If the experiment has not been done it's only because it would violate cruelty to animals laws, and attaching such a monstrosity to a elk really would be cruel. </font></font><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"> I know that the Irish Elk isn't an elk at all,<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>it's a deer.</blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">I've heard that complaint before and I think it's silly; yes it was a deer but it was also a elk. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">The word "deer" is a large category of several different species of </div>ruminants<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">, one particularly large species is is the modern elk. The extinct Irish "Elk" was also a large ruminant and people wanted to call it something besides its Latin name and elk was as good a name as any. </div></font></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"></font> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">who cares? Likewise for the meaningless<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>distinction between "horn" and "antler" here.<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size:large">Meaningless? Such a cavalier attitude would explain why </font><span style="font-size:large">somebody giving us a lecture on the Irish elk thinks a plot of body weight vs horn size has any relevance. The words "horns" "antlers" and "tusks" all refer to big things sticking out of a<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">n</div> animal but that's about all they have in common; the 3 things have very different growth patterns, evolutionary histories and functions</span><span style="font-size:large">. Horns and tusks are permanent structures but antlers are temporary and must be regrown each year at great metabolic cost. Antlers are made of cartilage, horns are modified hair and are made of keratin, and tusks are modified teeth made of the hardest substance in the body, enamel. Antlers are chick magnets, horns and tusks probably serve that function too but they also make excellent weapons, and elephant tusks can even manipulate things to some degree<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">.</div> </span><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Like most, I use the terms "horn" and "antler" interchangeably</blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">Yes I've noticed, but somebody who had a serious interest in why the Irish Elk went extinct would not. </font></div><font size="4"> </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><font size="4"> </font></span><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Do<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>you think anyone here will be distracted from the main thesis if<br>
"horn" is used instead of "antler"?<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">Yes because most people around here are not dilettantes.</font></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4"><br></font></div></div><div><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> John K Clark </div> </font></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div>