aNOTHER LITTLE OBSERVATION i GOT INTO FAIRLY RECENTLY IN THIE HSITORY OF MY ARGUMENTS AGAINST EVOLUTION IS THAT THE BODY PLAN OF EACH CREATURE IS A CONSTANT THAT DEFINES THE DCREATURE. nO MATTER HOW MUCH VARIATION GOES ON AS NEW VARIETIES DEVELOP WITHIN EACH GENOME, THE BASIC BODY STRUCTURE NEVER SEEMS TO BE AFFECTED. yOU CAN STILL TELL A CAT FROM A DOG BY ITS SKELWTON NO MATTER WHAT BREED OF DOG OR CAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, ALL BIRDS SHARE A STRUCTURE, THE APPENDAGES ARTICULATING WITH THE BODY AT THE SAME PLACE AND FOLLOWING SOME APPARENT LAW OF PROPORTIONALITY ACROSS EVERY KIND OF BIRD, FROM THE SPARROW TO THE OSTRICH TO THE PENGUIN TO THE FLAMINGO. THE BODY PLAN NEVER ALTERS. a BIRD IS A BID IS A BIRD. i'LL HAVE TO SEE aRCHAEOPTERYX AGAIN BUT i SUSPECT IT DOESN'T HAVE THE BODY PLAN OF A BIRD IF i RECALL CORRECTIOLY, SO i'D PROABABLY END UP THINKING ANY CLAIM TO THAT IDENTITY IS OBVIOUSLY FALSE.\\a TRILOBITE IS A TRILOBIT E IS A TRILOBITE BY ITS BODY PLAN. a HUMAN IS A HUMAN IS A HUMAN AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY TRY TO CONVINCE US THAT WE MUST HAVE DESCENDED FROM APES, THE BODY PLAN OF THE APES IS DIFFERENT AND SHOULD BE RECOGBNIZESD BY ITS SKELTON. lUCY HAS GOT TO BE SOME KIND OF DELUSION.
i'M SURE THIS ALL HAS GENETIC FACTORS UNDERLYING IT. sOMETHING ABOUT hOX DGENES OR OMETHING LIKE THAT. a PART OF THE GENOME THAT DOESN'T CHANGE WHILE ALL THE OTHER GENETIC MATERIAL CAN VARY IN ALL SORTS OF ITNERESTING WAYS BO GIVE US EVERYTHING FROM SABRETOOTHED TIGERS TO LITTLE FLUFFY PUSSYCATS, sT bERNARDS TO CHIHUAHUAS, cONDORS TO CHICKADEES AN SO ON AND SO FORTH.
aNOTHER TOPIC TO MENTION IS THAT i OFTEN USE THE CHEETAH AS AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE EVOLUTION GOES GENETICALLY IN ALL CASES, WHICH OF COURSE IS CHALLENGED MADLY BY MY OPPONENTS, BUT i THINK IT REMAINS A PERFECTLY GOOD EXAMPLE. iT'S THE RESULT OF fOUNDER eFFTCT, A SUDDEN REDUCTION IN POPULATION TO A BAREMIONIMUM AT SOME POINT IN ITS HISTORY, THAT BROUGHT ABOUT A DRASTIC REDUCTION IN GENETIC DIVERSITY AS IT CONTINUED TO BREED WITHIN ITS OWN SMALL POPULATION UNTIL IT PRODUCED THE ELEGANT ANIMAL WE KNOW AS THE CHEETAH, WHICH CAN NO LONGER INTERBREED WITH OTHER CATS. nOT ALL ANIMALS THAT ARRIVE AT THIS LEVEL OF GENETIC PURITY AS IT WERE HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO INTERBREED WITH THE ORIGINAL OR OTHE POULATIONS OF THEIR KIND, BUT IT IS ONE EFFECT OF THE TRENDS THAT ARE NECESSARY TO THE PRODUCTION OF SUCH CHANGES WITHIN A SPECIES. eVOLUTION DEFEATS EVOLUTION. yES THE CHEETAH DID NOT EVOLVE ACCORDING TO THE USUAL IDEA OF SOME SORT OF SLOW PROCESS OF NATURAL SELECITON, IT MAKEDE A SUDDEN LEAP DUE TO A DRASTIC REDUCTION IN POPULATION FOLLOWED BY ITS ISOLATION FROM OTHER CATS. THE SAME IS WSHAT HAPPENS WITH OTHER ENDAGNGERED SPECIES SUCH AS THE ELEPHANT SEAL. tHE SEAL HAS MANAGED TO PUBUILD UP ITS POPULATION TO GREAT NUMBERS IN SPIRT OF ITS GENETIC DEPLETION, WHILE THE CHEETAH STUGES WITH PROBLEMXS INVOLVING ITS REPRODUCTION BUT GENETICALLY THEY ARE BOTH EXAMPLES OF THE END PRODUCT OF EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES. iF YOU SLOW DOWN THE PROCES, TAKE IT IN SPAGES, SAY WITH THE RING SPECIES YOJU SHOULD STILL ARRIVE AT THE SAME RESULT IN THE END.
iN RING SPECIES A SMALL PORTION OF A POPULATION SEPARATES FROM THE MAIN POPULATION AND BECOMES ISOLATED FROM IT GEOGRAPHHICALY IN A NEW LOCATION ARROUND SOME KIND OF NATURAL BARRIER SUCH AS A VALLEY OR A MOUNTIN CHAIN OR THE aTLANTINC oCEAN AMD THEN AFTER THE NEW POPULATION HAS GROWN IN NUMBERS AND DEVELOPED A NEW LOOK FROM ITS NEW SET OG GENE FREQUENCES, A SMALL PORTION OF THAT POPULATIONJ AGAIN SPLITS OFF AND MOVES FURTHER AROUND THE NATURAL BARRIER AND THE SAME PROCESS REPEATS ITSELF. eACH NEW PORTION OF POPULATION HAS A REDUCED SET OF GENE POSSIBILITIES FROM THE PREVIOUS UNTIL OVER TIME YOU GET A NUMBER OF POPULATIONS EACH WITH A TRAIT PATTERN THAT DIFFERENTIATES IT FROM THE OTHERS BUT MORE FIXED LOCI FOR ITS SALIENT FEATURES AS YOU RMOVE FROM THE ORIGINAL AROUND THE RING. i THINK THAT HAS TO BE THE SACASE BUT IT WOULD TAKE SOME KIND OF RESEARCH TO PROVE IT
oR YOU COULD SET UP AN EXPERIMENT WITH MICE IN A LAB AND TAG EACH NEW POPULATION AND ANALZE ITS GENETIC SITUATION TO PROVE OR DISPROVE WHT i'M SAYING AFTER QUITE A FEW GENERATIONS.
aNYWAY i THINK IT'S PRETTY OVBVIOUS HAT THE PROCESSES OF EVOLUTION MEAING THOSE PROCESSES THAT PRODUCE PHENOTYPIC CHANGES THAT COME TO CHARACTERIZE A NEW POPULATION IN ISOLATION FROM THE OTHERS ALWAYS LEADS TO A CONDITION OF REDUCED GENETIC POSISBILITIES UNTIL AT THE END THEY WIND UP LIKE THE CHEETASCH, A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL THAT IS GENETICALLY UNABLE TO PROCUED ANY MORE CHANGES BECAUSE ALL ITS GENES FOR ITS SLIENT FEATURES ARE FIXEXDD OR HOMOZYGOUS.
iF THE AN ANIMAL CAN NO LONGER EVOLVE INTO NEW VARIETIES THEN IT'S REACHED THE END OF EVOLUTION, HASN'T IT? aND IF THAT IS THE CASE DOESN'T THE WHOLE THEORY JUST COLLAPSE IWHT HTIS RECOGNIZIOTN? yOU CAN'T HAVE EVOLUTION IF YOU HAVE NO MEANS FOR AN ANIMAL TO EVOLVE. aND ALTHOUGH THE WHOLE POPULATION MAY CONTINUE WITH LOTS OF GENETIC POSSIBILITIES THAT PAT OF IT ISN'T EVOLVING ANYWAY, IT'S ONLY WHEN IT EVOLVES OR PRODUCES NEW POPULATIONS THAT ARE DIFFERENT ROM THE EARLIER ONES THAT YO UIHAVE EVLLUTION. yES? yES.
fURTHER NOTE: dAWKINS THINKS YOU CAN HAVE NATURAL SELECTION AS THE DRIVING FORCE OF EVOLUTION WITHOUT REALIZING THAT IT IS SELECTION ITSELF WHICH REDUCES GENETIC POSSIBILITIES. iT DOESN'[T MATTER WHAT THE CAUSE OF THE SELECTION, ALL SELECTION IS IS THE ELIMINATION OF SOME TRAITS IN FAVOR OF OTHERS AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE NEW TRAIT SET THROUGH REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE POULATION THAT MIGHT MUDDY UP THE NEW CHARACTERISTICS. aNY GENE FLOW, RESUMED GENE FLOW, CONTINUED GENE FLOW OR WHATEVER, WILL KEEP THE NEW POULATION FROM DEVELOPING ITS NEW TRAIT PICTURE CLEANLY. iSOLATION IS THE KEY AND IT ISN'T PERFECT IN THE WILD IN MANY CASES. IT IS PERFECT IN DOMESTIC GBREEDING BECAUSE IT IS ENFORCED BY THE ANIMAL BREEDER. iN THE WILD PERFECT ISOLATION IS HARD TO BOME BY. rING SPECIES MAY BRING ABOUT THOSE CONDITIONS THE BEST IF THE NEW POPULATIONS DO MANAGE TO GET GEOGRAPHHYICALLY FAR ENOUGH AWAY TO PREVENT GENE FLOW BETEWWEEENT THE TWO.\
bUT THE POINT i'M TRYING TO MAKE ITIS THAT ANY KIND OF SLECTION WHIS WHAT MAKES EVOLUTION IMPOSSIBLE IN THE END BECAUSE EVERY SELECTION INVOLVES A N ELIMINATION OF SOME OF THE TRAIT POSSIBILITIES, WHETHER THAT SELECTION IS THE KIND OF SLEECTION THAT IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY SURVIVAL THREATS SUCH AS A PREDATOR, OR JUST BY THE RANDOM PROCESSES OF MIGRATION AND GEOGRAPHYIC ISOLATION. aLL ARE FORMS OF SELECTION THAT ISOLATE A PORTION OF A POUPULATION FROM THE REST OF IT. THAT'S ALL SELECTION IS AND IT IS IN FACT THE ENGINE OF EOVLUION IF YOU MISINPTERPRET BUILT IN GENETIC VARIATION AS EVOLUTION, BUT THE MORE YOU SLEECT FROM THE POSSIBLE VARIATIONS THE LESS YOU can SELECT BECAUSE THE FEWER VARIATION POSSIBLITIES REMAIN AFTER EACH NEW SELECTION. THIS SPELLS THE END OF EVOLUTION FOR ANY GIVEN TRACK OF VARIATION. tHERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS. yOU CAN'T GET NEW POPULATIONS WITHOUT REUCING THE GENETIC POSSIBILITIES FOR FUTHER VARIATION WITH EACH ESLECTION.
cOME ON dsAWKINS, THINK.
