Spotting Evolution on the Wing

Howard Hughes Medical Institute ^ | 04 February 2005 | Staff

[Theo]

These evo/creo threads are so predictable: they start out with some reasonable and well-mannered discussion, then the creationists are ridiculed and consequently leave, and then the anti-creationists laugh to each other how stooopid and corrupt the creationists are....

Such fallacious communication by those who supposedly hold science and logic in high regard....

[Thatcherite]

If the creationists want to avoid ridicule then they should avoid making ridiculous posts.

[VadeRetro]

“Co-opting” is central to the success of such an evolutionary mechanism, said Carroll. “A key concept here is that this novelty arose from new combinations of old parts,” he said.

"The Designer" virtually never designs anything really new. That makes perfect evolutionary sense, but far less ID sense.

[VadeRetro]

Pre-flood, the environment at the north pole may not have been much different from that in the Middle East.

Before any given mythological event didn't happen, it's hard to say what conditions were. But penguins live on and near Antarctica. And the North Pole, if it ever warmed up, would be ocean.

The ancestors of penguins, then, may have lived anywhere.

My guess would be Antarctica, which has drifted to the south pole of Earth via plate tectonics from regions far to the north. This transition happened at a speed far below "glacial."

[PatrickHenry]

"The Designer" virtually never designs anything really new. That makes perfect evolutionary sense, but far less ID sense.

"Intelligent Designing" must be like theoretical physics is said to be -- a young man's game. After a few billion years, the thrill has worn off, and the Designer just keeps recycling the old stuff.

[pharmamom]

The little guy on the far left is kind of pretty.

[PatrickHenry]

The little guy on the far left is kind of pretty.

Ah, yes ... the roots of sexual attraction go way back, my dear.

[pharmamom]

What I can't figure out, though, is how the females' little eyes can see the spot pattern, since their wings beat so fast.

So the boy fruit fly says to the girl fruit fly, "Hey, wanna come upstairs and look at my spots?"

[PatrickHenry]

I think they have to get to know each other first. That is, if they're good little fruit flies.

[stremba]

I think that the point jenny was trying to make (and she can correct me if I'm wrong) was that if the flood were literally true, then the surviving pair of koalas, for example, would have had to travel from Mt Ararat to Australia. Why would modern koalas then be found only in Australia, and not at any points in between Mt Ararat and Australia? Plate techtonics doesn't help here. Plate techtonics maintains that Australia and Asia were once part of the same land mass, not that Mt Ararat and Australia were near each other at any time.

[shubi]

"Which species did duck-billed platypuses devolved from?
And how did they get all the way from Australia to the middle east and back again?"

Platypi were created when the intelligent designer had too much scotch.

I think they had a round-trip ticket on El Al.

[Doc Savage]

My pet drosophila melanogaster recently morphed into an anteater. Gee, Darwin was right!

[shubi]

"My pet drosophila melanogaster recently morphed into an anteater. Gee, Darwin was right!"

Darwin was right in most things he proposed. You on the other hand don't understand what evolution is and your attempt at humor above demonstrates that.

Instead of ridiculing evolution, why don't you tell us support for your position? I have never seen one scientific argument for ID, creation science or whatever bogus idea you think is in the Bible.