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| Dojo loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus Photo: Takafumi Fujimoto |
A little female fish blows the creationist notion of 'kind' wide open and shatters the no 'macro-evolution' dogma.
When you can pin a creationists down to something approaching a definition of 'kind', it almost always includes something about not being able to breed with any other 'kind', although, naturally, when the needs of the argument dictate this may be abandoned to move the definition up a taxonomic level or two and widen the goalposts, so non-interbreeding but related species can be the same 'kind'.
They will also tell you that a change of 'kind' would involve a change in genetic 'information' to create new systems and structures (something they call 'macro-evolution') which they declare to be impossible because it requires new information (which they also declare to be impossible).
The facts, however, don't support them - as you would expect of a notion that isn't based on scientific observation and evidence but on religious dogma. This piece of research reveals a case in point.
A Japanese team of researchers based at Hokkaido University has revealed how an all-female clonal population of the dojo loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, reproduces. Unlike some all-female species such at the New Mexico whip-tailed lizard which it tetraploid (i.e. has double the normal number of chromosomes), the clonal females of dojo loach have the regular 50 chromosomes found in the sexually-breeding populations. Their findings were published in Chromosome Research a couple of months ago.
Regrettably, the full paper is behind a paywall and Springer want lots of money for permission to reprint even the abstract.
The clonal dojo loach is believed to have arised by hybridization between two genetically distinct lines of dojo loach, called Type A and Type B
What the team found is that during egg production the chromosome are duplicated to give 100 chromosomes which, as with normal meiosis, are then divided to produce half the number of chromosome in the egg (and sperm). This gives the clonal form of the dojo loach eggs with the full 50 Chromosomes instead of the 25 found in the sexually-reproducing form. Additionally, any crossing over between chromosomes is between copies of the same chromosome, not as in normal sexual reproduction, between chromosomes derived from each parent, so the clonal genetic complement is maintained.
And in a surprising twist, sperm from a male is needed but only to stimulate the development of the egg. No genetic material comes from the male.
So what we have here is a clonal fish that doesn't interbreed, so fulfilling one of creationism criteria for a 'kind', yet is is clearly related to and has the chromosomes of, the sexually breeding species. Additionally, with no increase in genetic information (still 50 chromosomes), the clonal dojo loach has a different reproductive mechanism. So, here we have a different 'kind' with 'macro-evolution' and all with no change in genetic information.
It can't be easy being a dedicated creationist with so much evidence showing creationism is bunk.
Reference:
Kuroda, M., Fujimoto, T., Murakami, M., Yamaha, E., & Arai, K. (2018).
Clonal reproduction assured by sister chromosome pairing in dojo loach, a teleost fish.
Chromosome Research, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10577-018-9581-4
mmm
ReplyDeleteHelmer von Helvete wrote:
@Rosa Rubicondior: Great post (as usual)! Do you have time to outline in some detail the similarities and differences between this fish (dojo loach) and the fish you wrote about here: rosarubicondior.blogspot.com/2018/02/all-female-fish-makes-creationism-look.html and the nematode you can read about here: https://www.inverse.com/article/32799-nematode-study-asexual-worms ?
A quote from the latter article: "Basically, this genome diversity has made the asexual nematode extremely adaptable to different environments and plant hosts, allowing them to beat out their sexual counterparts."
Since this nematode is also a parasite, I'm sure it must be created by the benevolent and all-loving Abrahamic God. His message to us humans may be something like what can be read in this another quote from that same article: "Who knows, maybe if humans could figure out how to reproduce asexually like the nematode, maybe we could adapt to the extreme conditions that will inevitably come with climate change. But then we would be living on a barren planet and having no sex…"
Or, in short, maybe God wants to prepare us for life in Heaven, something that is also asexual, at least according to Mark 12:25: For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
"asexual according to Mark 12:25."
DeleteMeh, Islam has far superior features to offer:
""Each time we sleep with a Houri we find her a virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each chosen one [i.e. Muslim] will marry seventy houris, besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appetizing vaginas."
- Sunan Ibn Maja, Zuhd (Book of Abstinence)
I'm male2male orientated, but "appetizing vaginas" are too good to pass by!
Was I a fundi-christian, I would have had the perfect debate-stopping answer. The dojo loach is spawn from the Devil! It even looks like him. The slithery type.
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