Evolution is a gradual process, and that is true of behaviors as well as physical features. Modern animals, with their modern behaviors evolved from other animals with similar behaviors. Eagles have exhibited maternal behavior for as long as they have existed. But ancestors of eagles many millions of years ago did not have that behavior. Many species of birds that exist now do not have that behavior.
If you want to continue this exchange, please humor me by telling me whether you believe "evolution" occurs slowly over many years or if instead you believe it occurs in a single generation.
That question is so ridiculous that I don't even know how to answer. Only if you believe in literal creation à la book of Genesis could you believe that animals suddenly appear, fully formed and with complex behaviors already programmed in their heads. Scientifically, we know that the form and function of organisms develop gradually over millions of years.
You see exDemMom, if only one of us has science degrees, it is I. So you may think my question is "ridiculous" possibly out of ignorance.
All animals have some characteristic number of chromosome pairs. We humans have 23 pairs. To be sure some people are born with 24 pairs, but so far as I am aware none ever has any grandchildren. So since I expect that you believe animals started out with just one chromosome pair you have to explain how we gradually got from 24 or 22 pairs or whatever to 23 pairs.
And I didn't say anything about Genesis. I don't pretend to know how we got here. I can only be certain that some explanations are not true, and one of those is the one attributed to Darwin.
ML/NJ
Tell me this and I might at least listen:
You're claiming that creatures which had down feathers for insulation evolved into flying birds (including eagles). Flight feathers however resemble down feathers in no way, shape, or manner. A flight feather has interlocking barblets and hooks for structural strength (to hold the bird up in the air) which a down feather doesn't begin to have. If flight feathers evolved via any sort of mutation, then ALL of the creatures feathers would change into flight feathers since the creature had down feathers all over his body. Nonetheless the flight feathers only exist in the precise areas in which the eagle needs them, i.e. his wings.
How did flight feathers evolve only where the flying bird needs them? Why doesn't the eagle have flight feathers all over his whole body??