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Anatomist: The perfect human body would have legs like an ostrich

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From Jonathan Wells at ENST:

For English anatomist Alice Roberts, however, the human body is a “hodge-podge” of parts assembled in an “untidy” fashion “with no foresight” by evolution. So, like many evolutionary biologists before her, she set out with some colleagues to “design and build the Perfect Body.” Her results were aired on BBC Four on June 13, 2018.

The Perfect Human Body would also have legs like ostriches. Ostrich legs are “digitigrade” — they rest on their toes. They are also very fast, enabling ostriches to run very quickly on the plains of Africa. And ostrich legs have proven to be a good model for making prosthetics to help people whose legs have been amputated above the knee.

Human legs are “plantigrade” — they rest on their soles. They are not as good at running as digitigrade legs, but their stance is more stable and they are a lot more versatile. Would I trade mine for the equivalent of prosthetics worn by an amputee? Not unless I have to. More.

Wethinks it won’t catch on. But Nathan Lents, call your office!

See also: Does Nathan Lents, author of a “bad design” book really teach biology? A doctor looks at his claims about the human sinuses

At Skeptic: Five Questions from biology prof Nathan Lents about Human Errors for Proponents of Intelligent Design

External testicles another instance of bad design? Oddly, in making such a dramatic claim (“there is no good reason that sperm development has to work best at lower temperatures”), Lents does not quote any expert on the subject of temperature and sperm development.

and

Jonathan Wells on Lents’s claim that the human eye is wired backwards

Comments
I guess they have not looked at Michelangelo's David.kairosfocus
June 27, 2018
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I love this kind of design thinking. This feature works great in this context, so we ought to be able to place it in a completely different context and have it work even better!Mung
June 27, 2018
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