Re: Prehistoric legged snake fossil discovered,article link


Sandy wrote:
Dear Cliff:
You are right. The use of "rudimentary" to describe the condition of
limbs that were in the process of being lost is clearly wrong.

No, it's not wrong.

very imperfectly developed or represented only by a vestige <the
rudimentary tail of a hyrax>
I
should have wriitten 'vestigial' as you point out, or perhaps, and
also incorrectly but less so, tabid.
A land lizard that loses its limbs through evolutionary processes is
not inconceivable if its prey were exclusively or mainly burrowers.

No. 'Rudimentary' has nothing to do with coming or going....it has to
do with 'basic'.

"Of a primitive kind the equipment of these past empire-builders was
rudimentary."

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rudimentary

.

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