Posted on 03/09/2013 3:35:32 PM PST by JoeProBono
A new study shows that certain organisms can undergo reverse evolution, that is, go back to the way they were living before evolving new traits. The study challenges the idea that evolution is uni-directional and an organism can't undo changes.
The idea that organisms can't revert back is held by Dollo's law, which states "that evolution is not reversible; i.e., structures or functions discarded during the course of evolution do not reappear in a given line of organisms. The hypothesis was first advanced by a historian, Edgar Quinet."The present study was conducted by a research team led by two biologists from University of Michigan who conducted the study on common house mites that live on mattresses, sofas and carpets. These mites have evolved from parasites that have in turn come from free-living microbes.
"All our analyses conclusively demonstrated that house dust mites have abandoned a parasitic lifestyle, secondarily becoming free-living, and then speciated in several habitats, including human habitations," according to Pavel Klimov and Barry OConnor of the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.Researchers found that the mites have gone back to the ways of their ancestors by beginning to live independently; a phenomenon which goes against the idea that evolution only goes forward.
Researchers, for the study, looked at 62 hypotheses on the subject. They then conducted extensive DNA analyses on more than 700 species of mites, to create a kind of family tree (phylogenetic tree) for the mites. Complex statistical analyses were conducted to test each hypothesis that explains the ancestry of mites.........
Why look to dust mites for documentation of Reverse Evolution when Veep Joe Biden is ready willing and eminently qualified to prove that politicians are perfect examples of this “dumbing down” Evolution.
BTW, a lot of us do not consider this to be a “new” hypothesis, for politicians at least.
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