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Author Topic:   “Rapid Evolution” Method Found in Eyeless Fish
Bojan
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From: Croatia, Europe
Joined: 07-13-2011


Message 1 of 2 (736144)
09-04-2014 8:47 AM


I'm active in debates about evolution vs creation in forums in my own language, and while most of creationist arguments there are pretty much standard, there was an intriguing one recently.
We were presented with this picture of small fish A. Mexicanus tetra, which is able to switch from normal appearance to cave-adapted in few generations.
It is argued by creationists that such cases prove that evolution is not able to make big changes and adaptations, and all information is already included in genome; the phenotype just switches as required.
Source here: http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/...od-found-eyeless-fish
So, what to think of it? It's just some regulatory genes switching on and off so that endangered species might change forms? We would expect that over many generations natural selection favors pale fishes with smaller eyes, but this is not the case.
Evo-devo might give some explanations; it is known that some changes in body forms (from leg to fin for example) are not beacuse genes mutated randomly; infact genes stay the same; it's gene expression that changes. This is why human babies might be born with tail and horses with more digits; genes are still in us, it's just genes for tail that are supressed.
So, is it possible that this fish gradually evolved to cave-like fenotype while still retaining all genes for "normal" version? Basically it evolved the machanism to switch back and forth? It would be very benefitial for those who are living in borderline zone between light and dark.
This sounds a bit like ad-hoc explanation, so I'd like to hear other opinions, possibly from experts.
This could go in biological evolution.
Edited by Bojan, : some typos

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Message 2 of 2 (736146)
09-04-2014 9:18 AM


Thread Copied to Biological Evolution Forum
Thread copied to the Rapid Evolution Method Found in Eyeless Fish thread in the Biological Evolution forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.

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