In another thread a reference was made to: Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of the Human Fossils
by Marvin L. Lubenow as an argument against evolution. One key problem with his argument is he is a Young Earth Creationist.
One of the key argument by Lubenow was that the evidence of inbreeding among closely related homo species like Neanderthals disproves evolution. The first contradiction problem is the evidence he cites is thousands and hundreds of thousands of years documented as older than any YEC world view.
The evidence for evolution is that inbreeding is common throughout the history of life and today as one of the mechanisms of increasing the genetic diversity in population. In this example the inbreeding between species actually slows evolution in what are called lining fossils, ie species of animals that have not evolved much in geologic history. The existence of these ancient species living today is often used by Creationists in their bogus argument against evolution. It is a fact that different species evolve at a wide range of different rates dependent on adaptation for a stable or changing environment.
phys.org
The alligator gar, and other gar species, are “living fossils” that it shows little species diversity or physical differences from ancestors that lived tens of millions of years ago. Credit: David Solomon
In 1859, Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" to describe organisms that show little species diversity or physical differences from their ancestors in the fossil record. In a new study, Yale researchers provide the first evidence of a biological mechanism that explains how living fossils occur in nature.
The study, published in the journal Evolution, shows that gars—an ancient group of ray-finned fishes that fit the definition of a living fossil—have the slowest rate of molecular evolution among all jawed vertebrates, meaning their genome changes more slowly than those of other animals.
By linking this finding to the process of hybridization—when two different species produce viable offspring—of gar species in the wild that last shared common ancestry during the age of the dinosaurs, the researchers demonstrate that slow evolution rate of their genome drives their low species diversity.
"We show that gars' slow rate of molecular evolution has stymied their rate of speciation," said Thomas J. Near, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the paper's senior author. "Fundamentally, this is the first instance where science is showing that a lineage, through an intrinsic aspect of its biology, fits the criteria of living fossils."
The researchers speculate that gars have an unusually strong DNA repair apparatus, allowing them to correct somatic and germline mutations—alterations to DNA that occur before and after conception—more efficiently than most other vertebrates.
by Marvin L. Lubenow as an argument against evolution. One key problem with his argument is he is a Young Earth Creationist.
One of the key argument by Lubenow was that the evidence of inbreeding among closely related homo species like Neanderthals disproves evolution. The first contradiction problem is the evidence he cites is thousands and hundreds of thousands of years documented as older than any YEC world view.
The evidence for evolution is that inbreeding is common throughout the history of life and today as one of the mechanisms of increasing the genetic diversity in population. In this example the inbreeding between species actually slows evolution in what are called lining fossils, ie species of animals that have not evolved much in geologic history. The existence of these ancient species living today is often used by Creationists in their bogus argument against evolution. It is a fact that different species evolve at a wide range of different rates dependent on adaptation for a stable or changing environment.
Study of slowly evolving 'living fossils' reveals key genetic insights
In 1859, Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" to describe organisms that show little species diversity or physical differences from their ancestors in the fossil record. In a new study, Yale researchers provide the first evidence of a biological mechanism that explains how living...
Study of slowly evolving 'living fossils' reveals key genetic insights
by Mike Cummings, Yale University
In 1859, Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" to describe organisms that show little species diversity or physical differences from their ancestors in the fossil record. In a new study, Yale researchers provide the first evidence of a biological mechanism that explains how living fossils occur in nature.
The study, published in the journal Evolution, shows that gars—an ancient group of ray-finned fishes that fit the definition of a living fossil—have the slowest rate of molecular evolution among all jawed vertebrates, meaning their genome changes more slowly than those of other animals.
By linking this finding to the process of hybridization—when two different species produce viable offspring—of gar species in the wild that last shared common ancestry during the age of the dinosaurs, the researchers demonstrate that slow evolution rate of their genome drives their low species diversity.
"We show that gars' slow rate of molecular evolution has stymied their rate of speciation," said Thomas J. Near, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the paper's senior author. "Fundamentally, this is the first instance where science is showing that a lineage, through an intrinsic aspect of its biology, fits the criteria of living fossils."
The researchers speculate that gars have an unusually strong DNA repair apparatus, allowing them to correct somatic and germline mutations—alterations to DNA that occur before and after conception—more efficiently than most other vertebrates.
