ABSTRACT
Ancient bones are somewhat like wind vanes that show from which direction a particular hypothesis breezes across the fossil field. I f a paradigm is useful one should be able to predict what will be found at the end o f the projected course. This means that one can put a general evolutionary hypothesis like a grid over the pattern o f evidence and see how fossils and expectations match. In the standard model predictions are not possible because the phenotype lattice radiates from one spot (the common ancestor) with every beam studded with chance-initiated branch points that give rise to unpredictable patterns.1 By rules o f the Genomic Potential Hypothesis the future position o f a species in the hierarchy o f taxa is, in principle, predictable. The discussion o f our own past will reflect this fundamental change in philosophy.
