Can any scientifically literate readers comment on thisABC Report, which says

research reported in the science journal Nature challenges basic beliefs of evolution – that wings evolved only once in insects and that if a trait is lost is cannot be regained.

It also opens a new direction for research because it shows that once a complex figure has evolved it can be maintained over long evolutionary period even if it is not apparent on the outside.

Over a 50 million year period, even though the stick insects did not have wings the genes for creating them appeared to have been maintained.

“The remarkable thing was that they had the ability to generate wings when they needed them,” Mr Whiting explained.

I was under the impression that the standard mechanism in the loss of things like wings was the selection of genes that ‘turned off’ crucial steps in development. If so, it would obviously be easier to reverse this process than to evolve wings for the first time. Am I wrong, or is the article over-dramatizing things?

UpdateThe BG strikes yet again. Brad DeLong has an almost identical reaction with a reference to “Darwin’s Radio ” – must read this.