Evolution in Action
One of the carrion cries of the anti-evolution crowd is to say evolution has never been observed. This is, of course, despite this, and this.
This week there is an example of “super fast” evolution.
Back in the 1940’s the threespine stickleback fish of Lake Washington had it tough. Predators were after them like a greasy chubby fingered Appalachian woman sucking down a KFC chicken drumstick.
Luckily the stickleback had developed its own armor to escape the sharp jaws of its adversaries–unfortunately for the chicken even extra crispy was no defense from even toothless, duster wearing hillbilly women.
But by the 1960’s Lake Washington was a mess. There was so much sewage being pumped into the lake that algae thrived, reducing visibility to only a few feet and making it much tougher for the stickleback’s enemies to see them.
As a result, by the 1960’s, the stickleback had lost its steel plating. (OK, they weren’t made of steel, they were actually made of fish scales, but steel plating sounded much better.)
It was a good time to be a stickleback. Lots of algae to feed on, blind predators, gas was 25 cents a gallon. Yes, a fine time indeed.
But then man stepped in again and did what most would consider a good thing: We cleaned up the lake. Visibility went from a few feet to over 25 feet.
But guess what happened to the stickleback? Did they give up? Did they move to Florida? No! They just evolved their scales again.
Pretty cool, huh?
Here’s the story for you Christians who believe evolution is a lie: The real lie is when our God has to be supported by falsehood. Evolution is a reality, but despite what you have been told, that reality doesn’t have anything to do with whether God is real or not.
Details here:
http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2008/05/15/reverse_evolution.html
Amen!
And your description of Appalachian women was spot on, lol.
isnt it different when something changes its appearance than something actually changing its essence?
like a did a monkey just shed its hair overnight or more over the years to become man?
as things were not needed then monkey changed to human, then why is there still monkeys?
i think just like other words maybe evolution means different things to different people.
whatcha think?
Evolution means a “change in allele frequency over time,” nothing more, nothing less. Any other definition is an oversimplification (such as in mainstream non-technical media or school textbooks) or deliberate deception (the way creationists use it).
An allele is any one of two or more genes that may occur alternatively at a given site (locus) on a chromosome. (Brittanica) For example, the genes coding for brown or blue eyes.
Consequently even such a slight change as the proportion of humans with blue eyes is still technically evolution. The cumulative effects of the change in allele frequency and the origination of new alleles through mutation is enough to trigger speciation and major changes in form when given enough time.
Hope I helped.