This is actually related to what I research (yes I DO actually work now and then). The details of the article aren't right though (typical of reporters doing science). The hyomandibular arch is part of the fish jaw (not really the gills) that mammals don't have anymore. Those bones migrated to our inner ear sometime during the water/land transition. It is considered common knowledge among the evo/devo folks. The big deal with this paper is only really that they found another "intermediate" step that shows how the transition occured.

Oops. Migrated to the middle ear not the inner ear.

Aquaman rocks! He never got enough face time, as far as I'm concerned.

Aquaman got good props from Superman on Smallville earlier this season. I remember years ago on the great show Dr. Katz on Comedy Central that Dave Chappelle had a good bit on Aquaman, although if memory serves me right it wasn't so nice to the man in orange and green.

Not to turn this blog into a total geekfest, but I think this article is a little confusing. One of the middle ear bones--the stapes--might have developed from the hyomandibular arch. The other three--the malleus, incus, and tympanic ring--all developed from bones in the reptilian jaw during the transition from mammals to reptiles, much later in the story.

[/terminal geekiness off]

[geekiness right back on]

Or the transition from reptiles to mammals, if you really want to get nit-picky.

[trying to resist the temptation to propose the upteenth uber-comic-nerd debate on the subject of who would win in an Aquaman vs. Namor fight...]

utron:

You are exactly right. Fish only have inner ears, mammals are the only ones with inner, middle, and outer ears, reptiles and amphibians being somewhere in between (they only have the stapes). The stapes has a clear relationship with the HMA, the other bones were derived from a structure called the palatoquadrate. Although to get uber-dorky (as if I wasn't there already) some of the incus also comes from the HMA. As I said, reporters rarely get the science right.

See, this is where the LLamabutchers have their niche: a post which mixes evolution theory and the Superfriencs, with excellent commentary quoting cutting edge scientific research, old Dave Chapelle bits....

How about Aquaman vs. Kit Fisto? You know, Kit was aquatic...his lightsaber had two crystals, so it would work underwater.

GEEK ALERT GEEK ALERT!!!