9 Dec
2010
9 Dec
'10
4:40 a.m.
Andrew Coppin
A change to a gene does not make you to have a extra bone. It can make you to have your hand slighltly longer. or shorter.
Actually I suspect it does - or at least can do. It's just a rather rare event.
Bodily development is regulated by a cluster of genes (the HOX cluster). The modern-day Galvani experiment is reshuffling this in fruit fly to make antenna into legs. I don't think it happens all that much in nature, and I guess any resulting offspring would have reduced fitness. -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants