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Re: Trilobite handedness

Subject: Re: Trilobite handedness
From: Aidan Karley
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 01:00:03 GMT
Newsgroups: sci.geo.geology
In article <R0uKf.3882$JR6.2686@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, 
Edward  Hennessey wrote:
> My anticipation would be that trilobites had a preponderant
> tendency to
> veer right when suprised, likely demonstrating a preferential
> "handedness"
> in their neural development.
>
       Perfectly true, but since developmental biology hasn't come to a 
consensus about *any* of handedness ... this still begs the question of 
*why*.
> At another level, most people are right handed and most
> right-handed
> people are right legged and right eyed in terms of dominance.
>
       *most* is not *all*, or even *overwhelmingly*. Which is the 
point. If it were 500:500, or 999:1, then there wouldn't be much of a 
mystery. But since the ratio is more like 200:800 (and for the 
fieldstaff at my work, 400:600 - figure that!), then it's a lot harder 
to explain. 
       And I wouldn't be anything like as confident as you seem to be 
about correlating right-handedness with right-eye dominance. Eye 
dominance is considerable more evenly distributed than overt handedness 
(which also tends to imply that the causative influences are not all 
the same in handedness and eye-dominance).
       
-- 
 Aidan Karley FGS
 Aberdeen, Scotland,
 Location: 57°10'11" N,  02°08'43"  W (sub-tropical Aberdeen), 0.021233


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