Posted on 04/22/2008 10:07:24 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Depends on how small your initiator populations were....
especially if there were some sort of catastrophe part way through that reduces the population of each creature to 1 breeding pair...
Italian wall lizards evolve.
Italian lounge lizards devolve.
Is anyone claiming that the genomic diversity of the new lizards was all present in the 10 founder lizards? All the genes for the modifications to their new lifestyle, were they all present in the 10 founders? Or was this (yet another) example of the biological innovation that some claim is impossible?
Let us know when they evolve into mammals.
This incident is not the long-term, step-by-step, trans-specific or trans-phyletic macro-evolution theorized by Darwin. This is extremely rapid speciation and adaption to one’s environment.
1) Considering how quickly it took for these changes to occur, it fits nicely with a young-earth model, as envisioned by the Bible.
2) Notice that, unquestionably, the Italian lizards have changed, but they are still lizards. The Bible nowhere states that God created every single species and sub-species; it says he created each KIND, that is, each genus. Within these broad parameters there lies, beyond the slightest doubt, the capacity for some pretty amazing changes, as we’ve just seen w/these lizards. It’s called plasticity.
LOL!
The way I look at it is: God wrote adaptive algorithms into the code. Makes sense really. If you're gonna create life to live in a dynamic, changing environment, you're gonna have to code the system that way.
God created evolution.
A lizard evolved into........ A LIZARD!!!!!!!
Well, the very fact that these lizards are quite a bit different (entirely different gut structure???) would seem to presuppose genetic changes, since genetics (genotype) is what controls their phenotype.
I wonder if these lizards could or would mate with members of the original species which was implanted in 1971?
The smallest potential initiator population would be two, if my logical facillities are functioning correctly.
Interesting “coincidence”, that.
A miracle?
‘punctuated equilibrium’ the idea that evolution remains relatively stable for long periods then rapidly adapts under stressors has been kicked around for sometime.
Agreed
A new gut structure, harder bite??? Gee these are very quantitative descriptions...no doubt a “scientist” with at least a high school education came up with them.
In 1971, scientists transplanted five adult pairs of the reptiles from their original island home in Pod Kopiste to the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, both in the south Adriatic Sea.
Genetic testing on the Pod Mrcaru lizards confirmed that the modern population of more than 5,000 Italian wall lizards are all descendants of the original ten lizards left behind in the 1970s.]
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LOL, Hmmm:
A new gut structure, and a harder bite. How do you determine they had a new gut structure — opening them up? If so, there probably would be a real tendency on the lizards’ part to bite harder.
Of course, thanks really ought to go out to the guy/gal who, in 1971, developed the bite test methodology, then measured, and recorded their bite strength. Talk about foresight!
Genetic testing on 5000 lizards. Sounds like it's a good thing the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, is tiny.
Wonder how long it took to catch each of the 5000.
Wonder what type of tagging/marking process they used to ensure they weren't catching the same ones again.
Wonder how many of the 5000 survived the “new gut structure” test.
Wonder what the state of genetic testing was in 1971, when the baseline for the lizards was measured and recorded.
10 lizards to 5000 lizards since 1971. They were of course, Italian lizards, so maybe some Italian FReeper can provide some insight into whether that's a realistic expectation, or instead, a sadly lacking reproduction count.
If it's sadly lacking in quantity, it was probably caused by Globull warming.
If it's a realistic and/or exceedingly good quantity, maybe these lizards are on their way to evolving into ...... rabbits?
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