Proof of evolution?
Quote:Samoa butterflies quickly evolve and avoid extinction
By Julie Steenhuysen Thu Jul 12, 2:23 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - When faced with extinction, butterflies on two South Pacific islands quickly developed genetic defences that helped them fight back, a team of international researchers said on Tuesday.
Yep this sure does prove that we evolved from non-living material 60 million years ago. Let's read on shall we, so I can finally but this Bible down.
Quote:They said the butterflies' tale is the fastest example of natural selection observed to date and shows evolution can happen quickly when the stakes are high.
In 2001, male Hypolimnas bolina butterflies on the Samoan islands of Savaii and Upolu were extremely rare. Just 1 percent of these butterflies -- known commonly as Blue Moon or Great Eggfly -- were male. They were under attack by the Wolbachia bacteria, a parasite passed down through the female that kills off male butterflies before they can hatch.
Last year, the numbers of males had either reached or were approaching those of females. They were helped by the development of a genetic mutation that suppresses the bacteria, sparing the males and allowing them to quickly repopulate.
Amazing the loss of information in the genetic code helped them to defeat the bacteria. It'd be like cutting off your legs to stop from getting athlete's foot. Yes you don't have to worry about it but you've got no legs (please no Black Knight jokes).
Quote:"This is one of the most clear and fastest cases of evolution under natural selection," said Sylvain Charlat of University College London, whose study appears in the journal Science.
Actually wouldn't natural selection say, "Ya know you're not well suited for your environment...I'm going to kill you all off now." Not to mention...how do these scientists know about all of these butterflies? Do they know each by name and where they all go constantly?
Quote:To test whether the male butterflies' resurgence was due to genetic changes in the butterflies or changes in the parasite, he and colleagues bred infected female butterflies with butterflies from a different island that did not have the genetic mutation.
The butterfly offspring of this pairing were then bred with butterflies from a non-infected island to dilute the gene that suppressed the parasite.
"After we did that for three generations, we came back to complete male killing," Charlat said in a telephone interview.
"That demonstrated that the observed pattern was due to suppression and not due to another phenomenon," he said.
Ok I think he just pulled the "Pick your card" scam on me! His crew took a whole lot of presuppositions in their experimentations.
Quote:The researchers are not sure whether the gene that suppressed the parasite emerged by chance from a mutation in the local population or whether it was introduced by migratory Southeast Asian butterflies in which the mutation existed.
LOL!!! ATTENTION ATTENTION!!! READ THE ABOVE AGAIN. So it could be the males "evolved" or whether a new bread came in that were already predisposed to resistance. Isn't that kind of...important?! You have male butterfly A and male butterfly B. A is dying out and the females are killing them (kinda like real life). B comes in and is resistant to the female's evil diseases. That isn't bloody evolution...that's bloody females moving from the skinny, white geek to the muscular, tan guy who kicks sand in the geeks eyes!
Quote:What is clear, they said, is the repopulation of male butterflies illustrates rapid natural selection, a process in which traits that help a species survive become more prominent in a population.
Not if another species comes in and takes over populating the other species!
Quote:Natural selection typically moves very slowly, sometimes over hundreds of years, they said, but when under severe attack, this process was accelerated.
"It is the speed of the process that demonstrates the intensity of the selection," Charlat said.
"The take-home message is that evolution can be really, really fast."
Darn! *Picks the Bible back up*...looks like God still loves me.
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