- Anything Else -

No evidence here

Posted by: Robert on April 26, 1999 at 11:44:38:

In Reply to: Evidence for rapid speciation in recorded times. posted by Farinata on April 22, 1999 at 19:10:10:

Farinata, dear friend,

: Wrong. Species have been evolving much the same as always; in fact, new species have been evolving to fit into man-made environments; check the dark grey form of the Peppered Moth; which can hide on smoke-stained walls far better than the light grey original form.

Wrongo on your part, dear friend. The highly touted peppered moth going from white to black to white again is merely the manifestation of the majority of their colours against the backdrop of the day. Of course during coal burning days the white ones could be spoted, hence eated, more readily than the black, and visa versa after that period.

The only thing that this shows is that the gene pool is reweighted over differing regimes. That is during the coal times, perhaps 99% were black and 1% white, and during cleaner times the preponderance of the species becomes white again.

In sum, what we see there is not speciation but the differing distribution of the same gene pool. Sorry.


: Secondly, humanity has been altering the genetic makeup of domesticated animals for many thousands of years; while all dogs have near-identical DNA, there are now breeds of dog that cannot interbreed; the first step towards two subspecies.

Fact: No new specicies have been domesticated in the last 4,000 years. Those that hit the breeding wall are sterile (ie. mules). Sorry.


: Thirdly, microevolution can occur in very short timescales; to quote one page on the subject:

: 13. There is no evidence for the rapid development of new species in nature.

: - 3,500 years ago, a small lake was separated from Lake Victoria by a sandbar. There are now five species endemic to the new lake; they have evolved from the original species in a geological instant (McGowan, 1984, 29). A population of Nereis acuminata that was isolated in 1964 was no longer able to interbreed with its ancestors by 1992 (Weinberg et al., 1992). New species certainly can emerge quickly.

: (-in this case, evolution was observed to occur over a period of 28 years!)

What nonsense. Mere isolation of a gene pool is not the creation of a new species. You have made a giant leap of faith here (dare I say religion). I would hope that your biology is better than that, Farinata. Sorry once more.

Perhaps you have compromised your scientific standards in favor of the popular jibe of the day. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. In His Many Blessings, Ciao.

Robert


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