Richard Dawkins: Vestigial Organs: The Wings of the Flightless Cormorant
Richard Dawkins explains how vestigial organs like the stubby wings of the Flightless Cormorant were one of Darwin's key arguments for Evolution. Download Quicktime version (720p HD):...
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[waves crashing, birds screeching] - The flightless cormorant is a beautiful example of rapid evolution in a sort of negative direction. Other cormorants fly, and they have trouble keeping their wings dry afterwards. They have to hang their wings out to dry. The Galapagos flightless cormorant has reduced its wings. It can no longer can fly, but it still goes through the motions of drying its wings, which is sort of bizarre, in a way. Quite often, we see in evolution that animals will lose something. because they don’t use it. And you might think, “well, why not just keep it anyway?” But the answer is that it costs energy. It costs food to make something like a wing, and so it does make sense to lose it. So you might think, “well, ...
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[waves crashing, birds screeching] - The flightless cormorant is a beautiful example of rapid evolution in a sort of negative direction. Other cormorants fly, and they have trouble keeping their wings dry afterwards. They have to hang their wings out to dry. The Galapagos flightless cormorant has reduced its wings. It can no longer can fly, but it still goes through the motions of drying its wings, which is sort of bizarre, in a way. Quite often, we see in evolution that animals will lose something. because they don’t use it. And you might think, “well, why not just keep it anyway?” But the answer is that it costs energy. It costs food to make something like a wing, and so it does make sense to lose it. So you might think, “well, ...
