From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: quester@infionline.net (Harold Groot)   
   Subject: Re: Star Trek: Am I the Only One?   
      
   On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:46:49 -0800 (PST), Led4Aces    
   wrote:   
   >> And she created a pathogen that regressed most of the crew into half   
   >> whatever they were / half one of their ancestors (which doesn't explain w=   
   >hy   
   >> Barclay became half spider, since they aren't ancestors of humans)...   
   >   
   >Not exactly. Go back far enough and Humans and spiders have a common   
   >ancestor. Probably hundreds of millions of years.   
      
   Yeah, but none of Barclay's ancestors had actual spider genes.  They   
   only came into being on a different branch of the evolutionary tree.   
   You might be able to "de-evolve" both a human and a spider to get back   
   to that same common ancestor, but you can't turn the spider into a   
   human or the human into a spider that way.  Neither has the correct   
   genes (active or inactive) from that other branch.  You can't   
   reactivate something that simply isn't there.   
      
      
      
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