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To: BroJoeK
Well... Darwin proposed a grand theory based on very limited data. Today the data available is orders of magnitude greater than in Darwin's day and remarkably well conforms to his basic theory.

So you seem to be more up to date on this than University of Chicago professors Coyne and Orr and any of their colleagues they refer to as "modern evolutionists."

So teach me: Do you believe new species evolve over many generations or does speciation happen from one generation to the next?

ML/NJ

154 posted on 03/13/2019 2:47:48 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj

hopeful monsters?


162 posted on 03/13/2019 6:15:17 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ml/nj
ml/nj: "So you seem to be more up to date on this than University of Chicago professors Coyne and Orr and any of their colleagues they refer to as "modern evolutionists."

No, but if it's important to you, I can be.
My first source, going back about 15 years, on how to deal with these questions was Eugenie Scott.

ml/nj: "So teach me: Do you believe new species evolve over many generations or does speciation happen from one generation to the next?"

Ha!, which came first, the chicken or the egg? ;-)

The answer is: words like "species", "genus", "family", etc., are all artificial constructs and matters of definition.
With the recent advent of DNA analyses some critters have been redefined as more or less closely related than previously believed.
The critters themselves never changed, not one bit, but suddenly we see them in a different light.

Today the rough dividing line is genus -- within a genus breeds, sub-species & species can at least sometimes interbreed.
But between two genera species cannot naturally interbreed, so that is a hard & fast line of division.
But everything else is pretty much a matter of definitions & interpretations.
When exactly does a different population become a "breed" (or race)?
When are different breeds considered separate sub-species?
How does a sub-species become a different species?
It's all definitions & interpretations.

Well known examples include Indian & African elephants -- cannot interbreed so are classified as separate genera.
Polar Bears & Brown Bears were thought to also be separate genera until it was discovered they do interbreed in nature, occasionally, so now they are just separate species in the same genus.

Bottom line: setting aside cross-breeding, no mother ever gave birth to a different species, but a common ancestor, say, a million generations ago, might well give rise to several different species.

Is that the answer you hoped for?

165 posted on 03/14/2019 5:16:46 AM PDT by BroJoeK ((a little historical perspective...))
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