Wehappy
What you've said sounds right but isn't actually completely true.
Of course Hox/Hedghog etc are reused for non-wing limbs but it is the
way they are used for wings that is the surprise. They are used in the same way for both very different wings. You'll notice I was careful in my above post and the title of the thread to take this subtlety into account.
Take a look here.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/gee/shubin6.html
It is clear that the bird and fly wings are not homologous and yet have the similarities pointed out in my first post:
quote:
The limbs of these taxa are not homologous as appendages because phylogenetically intermediate groups do not possess comparable structures. This suggests at least two phylogenetic possibilities: either similar genetic circuits were convergently recruited to make the limbs of different taxa, or these signalling and regulatory systems are ancient and patterned a different structure (presumably another type of outgrowth) in the common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes.
For some reason the fly and the bird used these genes in
exactly the same way even though nothing in between had wings.
PS - your also wrong about my lack of interest in evo-devo.
[This message has been edited by Tranquility Base, 07-09-2002]