From: Neal Eldred                                      Posted: 23 Sep 94  09:22
To  : Arthur Biele
Subj: Transitions, part 5.  2/2

AB>  It should be pointed out that the so-called movement of the
AB>  therapsid's two jaw bones, migrating toward the ear to become the
AB>  other two ear bones in mammals, is highly speculative and improbable,
AB>  and is one of those 'just-so' stories of evolution. There are no
AB>  fossil transitions which actually show these bones becoming the ear of
...

Perhaps some of your sources are a bit antiquated.

AB>  entitled 'Evolutionary Principles of the Mammalian Ear" (1978, Berlin,
AB>  Springer Velag), an authoritative treatment on the transition of the

In 1994, Gould apparently had no problem writing (in _Natural 
History_, 5/94, pp. 8-15):

"We can trace, through a lovely sequence of intermediates, the 
reduction of these small reptilian bones and their eventual 
disappearance or exclusion from the jaw, including the 
remarkable passage of the reptilian articulation bones into the 
mammalian middle ear ....  We have even found the transitional 
form that creationists often proclaim inconceivable in theory - 
for how can jawbones become ear bones if intermediates must 
have unhinged jaws before the new joint forms?  The 
transitional species maintains a double jaw joint, with both 
the old articulation of reptiles (quadrate to articular bones) 
and the new connection of mammals (squamosal to denary) already 
in place!  Thus one joint could be lost, with passage of its 
bones into the ear, while the other articulation continued to 
guarantee a properly hinged jaw."

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