Comments on: Geckos evolved sticky feet many times http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/06/27/geckos-evolved-sticky-feet-many-times/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:00:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Liath http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/06/27/geckos-evolved-sticky-feet-many-times/#comment-15447 Liath Thu, 28 Jun 2012 06:34:16 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=7168#comment-15447 In the past I have come across any number of folks with sticky fingers. I suspect they have evolved independently of one another. They make wretched dinner guests but seldom climb the walls. I doubt a close examination of their finger tips would be any where near as interesting as a gecko's. In the past I have come across any number of folks with sticky fingers. I suspect they have evolved independently of one another. They make wretched dinner guests but seldom climb the walls. I doubt a close examination of their finger tips would be any where near as interesting as a gecko’s.

]]> By: Zachary Miller http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/06/27/geckos-evolved-sticky-feet-many-times/#comment-15446 Zachary Miller Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:06:50 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=7168#comment-15446 That's pretty incredible. It makes me wonder if certain groups have a "tendancy" to repeatedly evolve specific features. Ancestral geckos had spinules, as you said, so the group as a whole may have trended toward wall-climbing if the opportunity arose. You could almost make an analogy to ceratopsids. The ancestral ceratopsid had a rostral beak and not really a frill--more like an elongated back-half skull (Yinlong). And yet ceratopsids, as a group, evolved and lost frills and horns multiple times independantly from a common set of features. That’s pretty incredible. It makes me wonder if certain groups have a “tendancy” to repeatedly evolve specific features. Ancestral geckos had spinules, as you said, so the group as a whole may have trended toward wall-climbing if the opportunity arose.

You could almost make an analogy to ceratopsids. The ancestral ceratopsid had a rostral beak and not really a frill–more like an elongated back-half skull (Yinlong). And yet ceratopsids, as a group, evolved and lost frills and horns multiple times independantly from a common set of features.

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