The problems of evolution, Darwin and the Giraffe
82charles darwin as he is usually imagined
The fathers of the evolution theory.
Mention evolution to most people and the first person they will think of is Charles Darwin.
True enough he is the best known evolutionist, and his theories are those most taught in schools etc. Many others had already had thoughts about where life came from and how.
Although not an evolutionist himself, Pierre Maupertuis was writng his thoughts on heredity and how animals may change over time as early as 1745.
Erasmus Darwin was Charles grandfather and wrote about his thoughts on how all life could have come from one common source.
But Charles theory has now become the accepted idea, here I am not trying to prove him wrong or right, just to point out some problems that won't lie down and die!
The chicken and the egg.
Hoorah!! This year British scientists solved the riddle of which came fiirst, Or did they?
They found a protein called ovocledidin-17 in the eggshell and then found the same thing in the chickens ovaries. It seems to be used to speed up the formation of a hard egg shell.
Hence, obviously the chicken came first, except where did the chicken come from then?
Ah ha, previous birds you may say, but where did they come from? Egg laying reptiles? True a lot off reptiles lay soft shelled eggs, but which came first the reptile or the egg.
Sorry the question just rolls right on
Lanarks giraffes
The giraffes neck
A less well known question mark hangs around the giraffes neck.
According to natural selection it grew over time so the animals could reach further. This makes perfectly good sense, or so it seems.
Yet again there are problems, one of which is that no fossils of giraffes with shorter necks have ever been found, only full sized giraffes!
Another point is that the giraffe has a special way of controlling its blood pressure to its head. Without this as it lifts it head the pressure drops and the animal passes out.
As it reaches down to drink the exact opposite happens too much blood to the brain.
Without this ability the giraffe couldn't have a long neck. With a short neck it didn't need it. It's almost the chicken and egg again!
Darwins giraffes
The problem of the horse
The horse has for years been taught as coming from a small three toed creature.
This is wrong. The name of the dawn horse Eohippus had previously been Hyracothrium, so named in 1841.
The fossil record shows that these three toed "horses" actually lived along side the one toed Equus in America.
Another of my hubs
This is an Islamic site but please don't let that put you off.
Eohippus
A student of evolutions indepth veiw on the subject, so that you can make your own descision
New news always coming in
- Epigenetics
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The new field of epigenetics is showing how your environment and your choices can influence your genetic code and that of your kids - BBC News - Dinosaur feather evolution trapped in Canadian amber
Samples of amber from Canada have yielded the most complete story of feather evolution ever seen, scientists say.
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you may have problems w the very complex theory of evolution but that doesn't really say anything except there is still very much to learn on the subject. you could have just as easily picked good examples of how evolution works but for whatever reason you chose not to do so. creationism has been around for thousands of years far longer then the "NEW" theories of evolution yet creationism still doesn't make any more sense really in its own light. the basic premise for evolutionary theory has not been seriously challenged except by those playing very loose with the evidence. the fact that it's still a theory doesn't mean it wont be proven over time.
Do you have any thoughts regarding recent findings on epigenetics, that activate and deactivate different genes based on environmental and emotional conditions? These seem to almost support a lamarckian understanding of evolution, where gene expression can morph within one generation, and not through mutation.
gconeyhiden, there may be many cases in which evolution works, as you have said, but the title was The problems of Evolution, and they were the things I wrote about. Evolution is a theory and any theory is allowed to be scrutinised. Thanks for your comment, Carolyn
earthasweknewit, avery interesting website
No have not really looked at epigetics till now, am putting another link or two on here for that. Sort of reminds me of my hub on Eugenics.
hi, a biologist has a hub and has corrected me somewhat and i quote...evolution is A Fact explained by evolution theories. in other words there is unrefutable scientific proof that evolution IS taking place. there is still much to learn but no one can prove it isnt taking place and the opposite is now true. please look into this. if you do you will find great hubs here more detailed then mine. he bible explains nothing properly about how life has formed.
Everything evolves and adapts, of course, but the actual "Theory of Evolution" seems more and more like a religion, as I delve further into it.
Anyway, Darwin borrowed most of the core components that founded the Theory of Evolution from others, as he has obviously retained way too much credit for this silly belief, to begin with.
Ha! I thought it is funny that you brought up the age-old question about the chicken and the egg.
I'm glad that you also mentioned about the giraffes and horses, as the Whale debate is often included among many others, when concerning this theory. Evolution is not a science, that's for sure...
I'm more interested in boggling the ones who think they spawned from a single-cell amoeba, but anyway...
Well, I'll probably do a hub in a week or so, when I find the time (been busy elsewhere, of late), that addresses a question that no evolutionist that I have ever met or talked to, has ever been able to answer. The ones here that I ran across on this site, just simply delete you from their hub's comment field, so I took the hint and figured I'd write my own silly hub in due time, not that I wanted to resort to that; blah!
have been busy with a few problems myself. Glad to see you agree that a theory is just what it says a theory, not a fact, look forward to reading your hubs
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The phrase survival of the fittest has been engrained in the psyche of the modern era since biologist Charles Darwin presented it as a hypothesis that drove the concept of evolution in his book On the...
Highvoltagewriter Level 6 Commenter 8 months ago
Great article and you hit some of the points I look at in my own hubs and yet you focus on other things I chose not to. I like the fact that you kept it simple and short! (I tend to make my own hubs wordy).