The Laryngeal Nerve of the Giraffe

[Fraggle145]

This is a pretty awesome video showing an accident of natural selection. It is a dissection, so if you have a weak stomach this is not for you.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1a1Ek-HD0

[OhU1]

Cool, thanks. Plus this is much more interesting than dissecting a fetal pig or an earthworm.

[StoopTroup]

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[yankee]

isn't that the dude that came to OU a couple of years ago?

[Fraggle145]

Yup. And our state's congress looked like bunch of jackasses when he did...

[achiro]

This is stupid and the leap this dude is taking by saying that the nerve taking an indirect route proves evolution is ridiculous. It neither proves nor disproves anything.
As they say in the video, the recurrent laryngeal nerve branches off of the Vagus nerve(a cranial nerve). The vagus nerve goes to the heart. If you don't want it to branch off of the vagus nerve then you have to create a whole new set of cranial nerves(including brain pathways for it). So instead, you branch it off of an existing cranial nerve. Much easier design IMO.

Remember also that the nervous system develops very early on as an embryo develops. Where do you think the heart is at that point? Where is the vagus nerve? What does the vagus nerve do at that point? The laryngeal nerve? As the baby develops, the heart eventually ends up in the thorax along with the nerves that run it but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't start there. So is the function of the RLN different at that time than it is in a fully formed baby/calf/whatever?

What about the branches that come off of the RLN to run other stuff in the neck, funny how they don't mention any of those functions in the video.

There is a whole lot more to the nervous system than just a wire running from the brain to an organ idea. It's just not that simple and trying to make it out to be like this guy is doing is absolutely working on peoples ignorance of the subject to convince them that his ideas are right.