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Author Topic:   Disadvantageous Mutations: Figures
PaulK
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Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


Message 4 of 93 (794459)
11-16-2016 8:40 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Gregory Rogers
11-16-2016 5:33 AM


quote:
Rather, the first question I have in mind runs as follows: if a great many mutations fail (whatever the percentage of disadvantageous mutations, it is still, I presume, rather high, or at least it was at the beginning of evolutionary history), then would we not expect to find a high degree of examples of these failures in the fossil and skeletal records?
It is always a good idea to clarify the question, and see what it means. For a start, we are obviously talking about phenotypic rather than genetic variations - simply because the latter are not visible in the fossil record. That in itself makes quite a difference.
So, what we are looking for is mutations that would be seen in fossils, that would be obvious as mutations, and can be identified as "failures". (And the question of what it means to be a "failure" is also of interest - how long can it persist, and in how many individuals ? And given the sparseness of the fossil record how can we tell if a particular variation falls below the threshold ?)
Remembering that the fossil record is a sampling of life, we would expect such mutations to be as common in the fossil record as they are in living populations.
(Note that we would expect the biggest failures to be rare because they would not be passed on - the more successful a variation the more likely it is to be found)
So, at this stage I will turn the question around. Since you, presumably, have a decent idea of your criteria for "failure" how common are failed mutations in living or historic populations ? What proportion would be visible in a fossil ?

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 Message 1 by Gregory Rogers, posted 11-16-2016 5:33 AM Gregory Rogers has not replied

  
PaulK
Member
Posts: 17822
Joined: 01-10-2003
Member Rating: 2.2


(3)
Message 15 of 93 (794572)
11-17-2016 10:55 AM
Reply to: Message 14 by dwise1
11-17-2016 10:34 AM


I just want to say I agree very much.
It is not absolutely 100% impossible that Gregory is secretly a devious creationist fanatic, but I really see no reason to believe it. And even if he were, angry dismissive replies at this stage only serve to make our side look bad. Pressie, you can keep your guard up, if you must, but let us keep to civil, respectful discussion until there is good reason to change tack.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 14 by dwise1, posted 11-17-2016 10:34 AM dwise1 has not replied

  
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