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How ancient whales lost their legs, got sleek and conquered the oceans
EurekAlert (AAAS) ^ | 22 May 2006 | Staff

Posted on 05/23/2006 4:08:38 AM PDT by PatrickHenry

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Everyone be nice.
1 posted on 05/23/2006 4:08:40 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: VadeRetro; Junior; longshadow; RadioAstronomer; Doctor Stochastic; js1138; Shryke; RightWhale; ...
Evolution Ping

The List-O-Links
A conservative, pro-evolution science list, now with over 370 names.
See the list's explanation, then FReepmail to be added or dropped.
To assist beginners: But it's "just a theory", Evo-Troll's Toolkit,
and How to argue against a scientific theory.

2 posted on 05/23/2006 4:10:06 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Unresponsive to trolls, lunatics, fanatics, retards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: PatrickHenry
"By integrating data from fossils with developmental data from embryonic dolphins, we were able to trace these genetic changes to the point in time when they happened," Thewissen said.

I'm sorry, but this can't possibly be true. Everyone knows that Haeckel guy was a fraud, so therefore embryology can never, ever, ever tell us anything at all about evolution. Or something.

3 posted on 05/23/2006 4:17:52 AM PDT by Senator Bedfellow
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To: PatrickHenry

LOL


4 posted on 05/23/2006 4:24:23 AM PDT by exnavy (God bless America)
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To: PatrickHenry
This gene - called Sonic hedgehog - functions during the first quarter of gestation in the embryonic period of the animals' development, before the fetal period.

Separated at birth?


(Bonus points if you can identify the whale--the ship is a BIG hint)
5 posted on 05/23/2006 4:26:16 AM PDT by sittnick (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: PatrickHenry

"scientists say the gradual shrinkage of the whales' hind limbs over 15 million years was the result of slowly accumulated genetic changes that influenced the size of the limbs and that these changes happened sometime late in development, during the fetal period."

Then, the whales decided to make disingenuous films about guns at Columbine and leftist propaganda about 9/11.


6 posted on 05/23/2006 4:26:35 AM PDT by Son Of The Godfather
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To: PatrickHenry

A bunch of wristwatch parts tumbled in a clothes dryer for 35,000,000 years won't put themselves together into a wristwatch; not even if you run it for 100,000,000 years.

I don't believe it.


7 posted on 05/23/2006 4:30:22 AM PDT by RoadTest (For the love of money is the root of all evil - I Timothy 6:10)
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To: RoadTest
"A bunch of wristwatch parts tumbled in a clothes dryer for 35,000,000 years won't put themselves together into a wristwatch; not even if you run it for 100,000,000 years.

I don't believe it."

Nor does anybody else. Nice strawman though.
8 posted on 05/23/2006 4:37:45 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life....")
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To: RoadTest
Of course you don't.

Now, I'm sure you know ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING about evolutionary theory - what it ACTUALLY is, how it works, the science behind it....or you wouldn't throw out the old stupid teleological argument.....which has been addressed hundreds of times.

No, you prefer to cling to your ignorance in hopes that it will buy you eternal salvation.

Hint: God doesn't like people who deny his wonders (Evolution being one of them).

I'm ALWAYS amazed when these folks think that MAN knows better than GOD. God set it up this way, all we have to do is live by the rules. Figuring out those rules is what science does. To deny obvious truths spread about you by the creator is blasphemous!

9 posted on 05/23/2006 4:38:47 AM PDT by KeepUSfree (WOSD = fascism pure and simple.)
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To: PatrickHenry
I have a couple questions.

If certain genes turn off (or on) to effect some of these changes, isn't it reasonable to assume that there would be the occasional "throwback" that exhibited the properties of an earlier version?

Are they inferring that a creature's habits cause it to "evolve" to meet the preferred environment (whales lost their legs because they swam and legs were a hindrance) instead of having the changes occur, which would require the creature to either adapt or perish (whales lost their legs and had to become full-time swimmers because they couldn't get around on land)?

This evolution stuff gets so confusing sometimes - it seems that it can follow either the nature or nurture path and all findings are good because they give more credence to evolution even (or perhaps especially) if they seem to contradict the theory.

10 posted on 05/23/2006 4:41:26 AM PDT by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

Must be a new creationist comic book being left at all the laundromats around the trailer parks. The old edition was "tornado in a junkyard." Now it's "wristwatch parts tumbled in a clothes dryer." Most impressive. It's good to see that the creationists are keeping up with the latest research.


11 posted on 05/23/2006 4:42:54 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Unresponsive to trolls, lunatics, fanatics, retards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: PatrickHenry
What I've noticed over the last 10-15 years is that programs/articles about prehistory have dropped, "scientists believe/think...", and have subtly substituted it with, "20 million years ago this occurred...".
12 posted on 05/23/2006 4:45:11 AM PDT by canalabamian (Durka durka...Muhammad FUBAR!)
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To: PatrickHenry

"It's good to see that the creationists are keeping up with the latest research."

It's an excellent example of descent with modification.


13 posted on 05/23/2006 8:22:08 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life....")
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To: PatrickHenry

I don't understand why, if whales evolved, we still have Sonic the Hedgehog today? < /luddite>


14 posted on 05/23/2006 8:30:31 AM PDT by LibertarianSchmoe ("...yeah, but, that's different!" - mating call of the North American Ten-Toed Hypocrite)
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To: trebb
If certain genes turn off (or on) to effect some of these changes, isn't it reasonable to assume that there would be the occasional "throwback" that exhibited the properties of an earlier version?

Depending on the mechanism of the gene regulation, it's possible. This is why humans are sometimes born with little tails.

Are they inferring that a creature's habits cause it to "evolve" to meet the preferred environment (whales lost their legs because they swam and legs were a hindrance) instead of having the changes occur, which would require the creature to either adapt or perish (whales lost their legs and had to become full-time swimmers because they couldn't get around on land)?

No, it is never accurate to say that a change occurred because the creature needed it. Evolution is not prescient. If a necessary beneficial mutation does not occur, the species simply goes extinct. The same mutation that caused these legs not to develop could happen in a land-dwelling whale ancestor as well. The difference is the land-dwelling ancestor can't manage without hind legs and would die, while the ocean-dwelling whale does better without its legs. By the time this change occurred, whales were already obligate marine creatures, with vestigial legs whose only utility is possibly as claspers (similar to sharks' claspers) for aid in mating. If the complete absence of hind legs is more beneficial, eventually that phenotype is likely to become the prominent phenotype.

15 posted on 05/23/2006 8:30:49 AM PDT by ahayes (Yes, I have a devious plot. No, you may not know what it is.)
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To: trebb
Are they inferring that a creature's habits cause it to "evolve" to meet the preferred environment (whales lost their legs because they swam and legs were a hindrance) instead of having the changes occur, which would require the creature to either adapt or perish (whales lost their legs and had to become full-time swimmers because they couldn't get around on land)?

It's more a question of, if you don't use your legs, does it matter if if you have a birth defect that causes them not to grow.

There are birth defects in humans where their limbs don't develop that's similar to what happened to the thalidomide babies in the '50's. If we were aquatic, we wouldn't need legs. And it would allow us to swim faster and easier, so it would likely be passed on to our offspring. No one would want to mate with the slowskys.

16 posted on 05/23/2006 8:34:21 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: RoadTest

Yet you still have no alternate explanation.


17 posted on 05/23/2006 8:36:17 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: RoadTest
I don't believe it.

Neither do I believe the Darwinists subjective nonsense. I would rather walk with the Lord than to follow their atheistic belief system.
18 posted on 05/23/2006 8:38:35 AM PDT by GarySpFc (Jesus on Immigration, John 10:1)
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To: Xenalyte
This gene - called Sonic hedgehog - functions during the first quarter of gestation

I don't know if Sonic Hedgehog is a great name for a band, or an ice cream treat one would have with a SuperSONIC® Jalapeño Cheeseburger.

19 posted on 05/23/2006 8:39:55 AM PDT by Flyer (Xenalyte is having a Hoop Skirt Hullabaloo all week!)
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To: PatrickHenry

"tornado in a junkyard" was coined by Hoyle, and
Wickram(xxxx)...sorry I cannot remember how to spell
his name.
Both of them purported that they felt life was seeded
to earth from another extraterrestrial source, cuz of the "tornado in a junkyard making a 747" scenario
was unacceptable...Neither of them are creationists, they felt (from what I understood) that life had evolved on a different planet under different conditions than that found on earth.


20 posted on 05/23/2006 8:41:25 AM PDT by Getready
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