dinsdag 28 oktober 2014

Now It's Whale Hips: Another Icon of Darwinian Evolution, Vestigial Structures, Takes a Hit



Iziko_Blue_Whale_Skeleton_Panorama.jpg
In the case presented by advocates of Darwinian evolution, vestigial organs are a star in the firmament, frequently and gloatingly pointed to. Darwin himself cited them as such in The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, referring to body parts like the human appendix that, he believed, no longer serve a function:
On the view of each organism with all its separate parts having been specially created, how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing the plain stamp of inutility... should so frequently occur.
Of course the appendix is a great example of an organ once thought to be without utility that now turns out to serve a vital role.
In the catalogue of purported vestigial parts, whale hips are "the marquee example," writes Stephanie Keep at the absurdly named "Science League of America" blog populated by our Darwin-lobbying friends at the National Center for Science Education. Unfortunately whale hips have now gone the way of appendix. A paper in the journal Evolution reports that rather than being a useless reminder of the evolutionary past, when whale ancestor Pakicetus strode the land on all fours, they in fact serve an unquestionably important purpose.
pelvic.jpg


full article: http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/09/whales_hips_ano089811.html

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