Re:Commentator really gets it wrong (Score 1)

See Gould's book "Wonderful Life" for an informative and entertaining account of his theories on convergent evolution and the misconception that evolution is continually working to increase complexity. Much of what Gould presents is probably true, but not all of his evidence and theories are completely accepted. While there are plenty of examples of convergent evolution, it's reasonable to assume that certain new traits, such as the ability to use chlorophyll for photosynthesis or sexual differentiation, gave the lucky organism such an advantage that it quickly evolved and spread to fill new and existing niches. In cases such as these, it's likely that the watershed evolutionary event happened only once, and all organisms that exhibit that trait are descendents of that first species. Whether a primitive proto-backbone gave such an advantage is really hard to tell, given the scant fossil records available. Sig: not found