[Diamond]

Either way, Well said. I would also point out that, IIRC, L-GLO is merely the last of a series of necessary steps to synthesizing ascorbic acid - in humans and other primates, all the other steps and ingredients necessary are still present, despite the fact that the process is broken due to the missing ingredient.

If the process is broken, and useless, why are these genes still around, in Darwinian terms?

why should we not infer that Alice was once capable of baking a cake too?

Whether Alice was once capable of baking a cake or not says nothing about whether she is related to Bob and Carol.

Cordially,

[Senator Bedfellow]

If the process is broken, and useless, why are these genes still around, in Darwinian terms?

The process that caused the rise of the Appalachian Mountains ended long ago. Why are they still around? Because there hasn't been enough time for them to erode away yet.

The breakage was relatively recent, in evolutionary terms. Plus, there's not much penalty for carrying them around, even if they don't work.

Whether Alice was once capable of baking a cake or not says nothing about whether she is related to Bob and Carol.

There are none so blind as those who will not see. The commonality of those genes is but one tiny pebble in the entire mountain of evidence for common descent. It "says nothing" only as long as you can manage to studiously ignore the big picture.

[Right Wing Professor]

If the process is broken, and useless, why are these genes still around, in Darwinian terms?

What is the selective pressure to remove them?

[RightWingNilla]

If the process is broken, and useless, why are these genes still around, in Darwinian terms?

There is apparently no selection pressure to remove it. Most of your DNA is filler.