There are no real answers to any of those questions!

(Question 2: often in nature characteristics are not predominant
because they are better than other characters, but sometimes
because they were first to develop, or they became the dominant
character by chance, such as often happens in small population
bottlenecks. But is 5 digits really that pervasive? All the
ungulates have reduced digits, cetaceans have none (externally).
Personally, I would say it's mostly chance, since so many species
have "tried" to alter thier origional digit number.)

Peter


At 11:03 AM 12/2/00 -0500, you wrote:
>1. Where have all the flowers gone?
>2. How come the digital number for most mammals is 5? Why is that better
>than 4 or 6?
>3. If periosticum is so valuable as camoflage and protection, how come
>Olives and Eps (among others) don't have 'em?
>4. Who is gonna be the next President of the United States?
>            Q-Man
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------
Peter Egerton, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Collector of worldwide Mollusca, lifetime student
of zoology and computers.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Step into my website:
http://www.intergate.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
(includes "Seashells of British Columbia", links and my resume)
        -Links to add, remove, alter?  Just ask!
        -This is an on-going project.
        -Suggestions always welcome :-)
-------------------------------------------------------