But before we let him continue in that vein, we want to digress for a moment. Bakker states categorically that warm blood evolved twice. The change from cold blood to warm blood is nothing short of miraculous, and he thinks the miracle occurred twice. Richard Dawkins believes that eyes have evolved independently at least 40 times. This is called convergent evolution .
Evolution supposedly arrives at the same place through different routes.
Bakker fails to make the point that if we believe that the warm-blooded condition evolved only once, then that would affect our zoological classification system because the classification systems is based upon the presumed path of evolution. But let s let Bakker make a slightly different point. Generally speaking badges are harmful in science. If a scientist pins one labeled Reptile on some extinct species, anyone who sees it will automatically think, reptile, hmmm that means cold-blooded, a lower vertebrate, sluggish when the weather is dark and cool. We certainly agree that scientific orthodoxy should be challenged more often.