How All Species Are Related Grows More Precise, Complex [Evolution]

Wall Street Journal (subscription required) ^ | 13 June 2002 | Sharon Begley

[PatrickHenry]

Family resemblance can indeed be elusive, or we wouldn't have "check the mailman" jokes. Scientists who try to infer who's related to whom among all creatures past and present can therefore be forgiven for taking 150 years to figure out this one: slime molds, mushrooms and other fungi are more closely related to you, me and other animals than they are to plants.

[Aric2000]

You're on the list PH........

Any thread you start is probably automatically tossed back here...;)

[PatrickHenry]

Looks that way. Well, it's time to abandon thread. If I get any pings, I'll drop in to see what's going on. Otherwise, I'm out of this one.

[longshadow]

short-lived thread placemarker

[gore3000]

You don't need the DNA from millions of years ago. If two species split off from one another then their ancestors will share a certain amount of similarities.

Yes you do, because according to evolution all species continue to mutate and change. You guys cannot have it both ways - either evolution is false or the studies are false. Species cannot both be mutating and in a state of stasis. This is the problem with evolutionists, constant doubletalk and circular reasoning.

[Aric2000]

He is Clueless about genetics, evolution, paleontology, and science in general placemarker.

ROFLMAO!!!

[MattAMiller]

Yes you do, because according to evolution all species continue to mutate and change. You guys cannot have it both ways - either evolution is false or the studies are false. Species cannot both be mutating and in a state of stasis. This is the problem with evolutionists, constant doubletalk and circular reasoning.

Here's the sentence you appearently missed: "The difference will be accounted for by changes in BOTH species over that time." If I find that two species share a good deal of DNA I can surmise that they split off from each other at some point. These species will also have some DNA that is different and I could further surmise that this is because both species experienced change while isolated from one another.

[Junior]

Species cannot both be mutating and in a state of stasis.

Actually they can. Picture species not as a monolithic block, but as a cloud of individuals centered about a norm, the norm being the best adaptation to the particular environment of the species. The fringes of the cloud are the mutations that crop up ever generation. As they are farther from the norm, they have a decreased chance of surviving to propogate (it doesn't mean they won't surive, just that their chances are diminished). Hence, we have a species in stasis and mutating at the same time.

Now, suddenly, the environment changes and the norm moves in one direction or another. Those mutations that were on the fringe in that direction are now closer to the new norm, and their chances of survival have increased. The former center of the cloud is now the fringe and the fringe on the opposite side has become untenable and will likely die off. Eventually the species will cluster about the new norm, having evolved through the process of mutation (the fringes) and natural selection (the clustering about the norm).

Sometimes a group of this cloud will become isolated by some mechanism (a land bridge springs up, mountains arise, continents split) and your former cloud becomes two new clouds, each clustered about its own norm, and each free to move in completely different directions if the need arises. Hence we have speciation.

Now, none of the above is in any manner "double talk." It is clear, concise, and fairly accurate for the discussion at hand. Of course, I'm not holding my breath that you'll accept it as such and discuss it on its merits, and I'm fully prepared for you to simply dismiss this out of hand with one of your "liar evolutionist" comments.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

We are all clones bump.

[freeordie]

Great Creation books:

In the Beginning by Walt Brown
Bones of Contention
Icons of Evolution

or go to www.drdino.com and view the online seminar

[donh]

If my statement were wrong, you should be able to give hundreds if not thousands if not millions of examples from the millions of species in existence where a totally new gene has been seen to have been created from an old gene.

The immune system creates brand spanking new blood genes to order and asserts them into DNA strands, from which they are expressed, just like any other gene.

[Condorman]

Oh pshaw!

Nothing that reasonable can POSSIBLY be correct.

Harrumph!

[Aric2000]

Come on Donh, don't confuse him with facts.

Those facts are so inconvenient, so, he will just ignore these as well.

You know, if you ignore something, it will go away...at least that's the feeling I get about his attitude.

[balrog666]

Smokey Backroom placemarker.

How'd we get back here?

[Aric2000]

I think that PH is on a list of some sort, and any thread he starts about evolution automatically get shoved back here.

There is a definite picture forming showing this is most likely the case.

[Junior]

I figured I'd have gotten at least one "lying slime" out of him by now.

[PatrickHenry]

When rationality is outlawed, only outlaws will be rational.

[Aric2000]

A Rational placemarker

[PatrickHenry]

Temporary tagline switch, inspired by the relocation of this thread.