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Originally posted by peter borger:
Adaptation to dental surgery?
Please, Peter B., You are smarter than that. Were surgery not available, impacted wisdom teeth could be very disadvantageous.
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The loss/gain of the wisdom teeth may be the result of a preexisting mechanism that influences gene expression and invokes variation in the human population. For instance, the Alu-sequences in humans may be responsible for differential expression of traits in subpopulations, but may even be responsible for father-son differences.
Right.... so?
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This has never been observed; it is extrapolated (and an unwarranted conclusion) from the fossil record. Besides, according to ToE whales did not loose their limbs but their legs changed into flippers.
So.... extrapolation == unwarranted conclusion? You've just toppled all of human knowledge. I think I've mentioned this before.
{quote
It may be so that --in your opinion-- evolution does not require constant "additions", but could you than please explain to me how a bacterium became a primate, or --simpler-- how a prokaryote evolved into a eukaryote?
"All the ToE requires is change."][/quote]
Evolution doesn't require "additions" in the sense of the sudden appearance of whole new appendages or organs. Something isn't just born with a leg where its mommie didn't have one. You might get a little bulge of muscle that gets larger over many generations. This is really just change of existing structures, which you accept I believe, not whole new additions.
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Not entirely true. ToE needs upward change. I do not doubt the existance of variation (=change).][/quote]
Upward change?
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Please explain to me why --in your opinion-- it doesn't matter. Of course, it matters whether we find new genes in an organism or whether genes are inactivated. Your statement demonstrates that you do not know the ins and outs of evolution theory and the problems it is facing.
Please explain to me how it does matter as per the context of this discussion.
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If there are no new genes/traits which provide adaptive advantage there is nothing to select.
True, and the species in question is in big trouble.
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