Creationism in Crisis - A Population of Greenland's Ringed Seals Has Been Isolated Since 90,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

North Atlantic Ringed Seal

The Kangia Ringed Seal of Greenland's Ilulissat Icefjord

The ringed seals in Ilulissat Icefjord, Greenland, are special

How an isolated population of a species diverges from the 'parent', both genetically and phenotypically, is illustrated by a population of Arctic ringed seals, Pusa hispida hispida which is normally a wide-ranging circumpolar species but a population of which is more or less sedentary in the Ilulissat Icefjord in Western Greenland, and so is isolated from the main population.

This population, known locally as the Kangia, differs markedly in coat pattern and size from the usual ringed seal and genetic studies have shown that it has been isolated from the main population for about 100,000 years, which, to the embarrassment of creationists, means since about 90,000 years before they believe Earth existed.
The ringed seal of the Ilulissat Icefjord have been identified as a distinct subspecies by a research team led by Greenlandic and Danish researchers. Their results are published open access in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Tell me all about the Arctic ringed seal, especially the Kangia from western Greenland. The Arctic ringed seal (Pusa hispida), often referred to as simply the ringed seal, is a species of seal found primarily in the Arctic and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. These seals are well adapted to cold environments and are considered the smallest and most abundant of the Arctic seals. Here are some key facts about the Arctic ringed seal:

Creationism in Crisis - Some of Our Mental Heath Problems Could Be the Result of Denisovan Genes

Super-resolution STED microscopy image of HEZ293 cells transfected with the zinc transporter ZnT9 (in green). In magenta the mitochondrial protein TOM 20 and in white the localization in mitochondria.

Credit: Rubén Vicente.

Geographic distribution of the substitution identified in the SLC30A9 gene in current human populations and possible scenarios of Denisovan introgression. Ancestral SLC30A9 corresponds to the version of the gene prior to interbreeding between Denisovans and sapiens. SLC30A9 variant, refers to the version shared with Denisovans.

Credit: Jorge Garcia and Elena Bosch.
Licensed under Creative Commons 4.0. Created with mapchart

Denisovan genetic inheritance may have left a mark on our mental health - Focus UPF (UPF)

A team of researchers led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint center of the Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) , and by the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS) of the UPF, has identified one of the most widespread traces of the genetic inheritance of the extinct Denisovans in modern humans.

These genes probably played an important role in helping early Homo sapiens adapt quickly to a cold climate, but, because they are involved in the regulation of zinc and play a part in cellular metabolism could also be a contributory factor in predisposition to mental health disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.

It's tempting to assume that they may also have contributed to a growth in religion since many 'prophets' seem to have had schizophrenic disorders in which they heard voices. However, that's not the main worry for creationists in this research. What they need to cope with is the fact that all this happened in that vast expanse of time before 'Creation week' when creationists believe the universe was magicked up from nothing, just 10,000 years ago.

There is also the matter of Homo sapiens not having a single founding couple who were created without ancestors, and don't even come from a single species, but are a hybrid between several related species.

So, just who were these Denisovans?

Creationism in Crisis - How Grasses Acquired New Genetic Information - By Horizontal Gene Transfer

Natural GM crops: grasses take evolutionary shortcut by borrowing genes from their neighbours | News | The University of Sheffield

Alloteropsis semialata, acquired genes by lateral transfer from other species.

Despite Creationist dogma that no new genetic information can arise in a genome without the active intervention of a magic man in the sky, who can magically create information at will, there are several known mechanisms by which this can occur - for example, gene or even whole genome duplication, which leaves spare DNA which can mutate without harming the carrier and which, when filtered through the sieve of natural selection, can give rise to novel genes and new genetic information.

And there is horizontal gene transfer, normally thought of in terms of bacteria sharing genes in the form of plasmids with other bacteria, even from a different species. And scientists are constantly discovering new examples of horizontal gene transfer, sometimes with startling results such as the fruit fly, Drosophila ananassae which has the entire genome of the bacterium Wolbachia incorporated into its genome.

Now a team of researchers at the University of Sheffield, UK, have discovered that the evolution of grasses included frequent horizontal (or lateral) gene transfer, the effects of which were to enable them to grow taller and faster. This is a natural version of genetic modification. The research is reported in the journal New Phytologist and explained in the University of Sheffield press release:

Creationism in Crisis - How African Genetic Diversity Refutes Creationist Origin Myths - It's Those Pesky Facts Again!

Kuvale settlement in Virei, Namibe province of Angola.

© Sandra Oliveira

San people, Southern Africa

Probing the deep genetic structure of Africa | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Creationist dupes believe that all human life on Earth was reduced to a small band of 8 related individuals who survived a global genocidal flood and then got off a boat in Turkey and repopulated Earth from there.

Their problem is that this ludicrously implausible tale gives us a testable hypothesis - that an analysis of human genetics should show this bottle neck and the distribution of humans from that geographical point. We would also expect the greatest diversity to be found around the area of modern Turkey.

And of course, this hypothesis is easily and repeatedly falsified, which normally spells the death of any scientific hypothesis.

The scientific explanation for human origins is that modern Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and spread to the rest of the world from there, preceded, probably by archaic hominids such as H. erectus. A hypothesis stemming from this theory is that the greatest genetic diversity is to be found in Africa, because humans have been evolving there for longer than anywhere else. A recent refutation of it was found in an analysis of the genome of ancient people in the Angola/Namib region of Africa, which also validates the 'out of Africa' theory of human origins.

The work was done by a research team from the University of Bern in Switzerland, the University of Porto in Portugal and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The Maz Planck Institute News release explains it:

Malevolent Designer News - How Creationism's Favourite 'Designer' Made Alzheimers More Likely

[left caption]

[Right caption/credit]

IU researchers identify new gene mutation that alters Alzheimer’s disease risk

The terrible week for creationism continues unabated: Following yesterday’s news of more evidence of common descent of the great apes, including humans, we have news that creationism's putative designer has apparently given some people a gene variant that increases their risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia in later life, while some others get a variant the reduces that risk.

A problem of creationists' own making is the insistence that mutations don't happen by chance but need the deliberate intervention of their favourite putative designer, without whom nothing happens.

This means they need to ignore the existence of parasites, which, if they were designed deliberately, can only be regarded as evidence that whatever designed them had malevolent intent, and intended to increase the suffering in the world, since that is what they do.

It also means they need to ignore the evidence that a lot of diseases are caused by mutations, especially the degenerative diseases in older people, which don't manifest until after they have produced their offspring, and so passed on their genetics, including any mutations.

This is where we come to the news that a large team of researchers, led by scientists from Indiana University School of Medicine, USA, have identified a mutation in a critical gene for the brain's immune system, so greatly increasing the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

Creationism in Crisis - An Acute Bottleneck in Early Hominin Ancestral History - Almost a Million Years Ago

The core formula of the new inference method is shown. The image depicts a cliff painting, illustrating the population of human ancestor pull together to survive the unknown danger in the darkness during the ancient severe bottleneck.

Image by Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, CAS

Early Ancestral Bottleneck Could’ve Spelled the End for Modern Humans----Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences

African savannah in the Middle Pleistocene (Artist's Impression)

Credit: Peter Schouten

Creationists claim, without any understanding of the biological absurdity of the claim, that the human population on Earth went through a genetic bottleneck of 8 related individuals about 4,000 years ago following a genocidal flood inflicted on Earth by an angry god, annoyed that his design wasn't working as intended.

The one thing right about that claim is the bottleneck, although it wasn't so narrow that it would have almost guaranteed extinction within a few generations because of accumulated deleterious genes and a lack of genetic diversity, it was about 1,280 individuals and it happened about 900,000 years before creationists believe the universe was created, before anatomically-modern humans had evolved.

This is the findings of Chinese researchers led by Haipeng Li, of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, and Yi-Hsuan Pan of the Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.

First, a little about evolutionary bottlenecks and the consequences for humanity had the mythical genocidal flood actually occurred as creationists believe:

Unintelligent Design News - How the Human Y Chromosome Evolved

Rost9/Shutterstock

The 'weird' male Y chromosome has finally been fully sequenced. Can we now understand how it works, and how it evolved?

An international team of scientists led by researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, together with colleagues from the University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, have finally completed the task of sequencing the entire human Y chromosome from end to end or T2T (Telomere-to-Telomere). This completes the entire human genome now sequenced T2T.

Unsurprisingly, they found that most of the DNA was non-functional junk, containing the remnants of ancient retroviruses and duplicated genes that had then mutated.

The X and Y chromosomes, or sex chromosomes, are how gender is determined in humans and other mammals. Females have two copies of the X chromosome while males have one of each. Males inherit their Y chromosome from their father.

The significance of the research, and how it informs our understanding of the evolution of the Y chromosome from one of the two X chromosomes that females carry is the subject of an article in The Conversation by Professor Jenny Graves Jenny Graves, La Trobe University, Australia. Her article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons Licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Creationism in Crisis - How a Deleterious Gene Can Survive in a Population

Coyote tobacco Nicotiana attenuata is a plant species native to the Great Basin Desert of the western United States.

© Ian T. Baldwin
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Coyote tobacco, Nicotiana attenuata

Stan Shebs via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

It all depends on the genetic diversity | Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Mutations in genes that are essential for defence against predator attack are usually deleterious and would be expected to be quickly eliminated from a population, however, occasionally, the same mutation can convey an advantage which it is able to assert in conditions where predator populations are low, and this is especially true if wide genetic diversity within the population makes it more likely that the mutation can operate synergistically with other genes.

This can lead to a dynamic situation in which, in periods of low predation, the mutation can increase, or at least remain at a stable level in the population, and, in periods of high predation, it can be reduced. This dynamic can result in deleterious genes being retained in a population for much longer than would be expected if they were wholly deleterious.

An example of this was found recently by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany, in a wild member of the tobacco family, Nicotiana attenuata. Their finding is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS)

The research and its significance are explained in a press release:

Creationism in Crisis - In Just 2000 Years Humans In Central Asia Had Diverged into Multiple Cultures Each with Distinctive DNA, If Creationists Are to be Believed

The Xiongnu built a multiethnic empire on the Mongolian steppe that was connected by trade to Rome, Egypt, and Imperial China.

© Artwork by Galmandakh Amarsanaa, courtesy of Christina Warinner and the DairyCultures Project

Multiethnic structure of Mongolia’s first nomadic empire | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

The Xiongnu Empire, from 300BC, had a significant impact on the political economies of Central, Inner and East Asia and created extensive trade networks.

Photo: Weibo

Following the news that Ötzi the Iceman, who died just 700 years after creationists believe the human population of the world was reduced to 8 related individuals, was a brown-skinned 'outsider' in Europe, descended from people who had migrated from Anatolia a couple of thousand years earlier, comes news that an early empire in Central Asia, the Xiongnu Empire, had a multi-ethnic origin.

Each of these pieces of news give the lie to creationist claims of a genocidal flood just 4000 years ago because there would simply not be enough time for the human populations of Europe or Asia to diversify to the extent that different genetic populations would be identifiable.

Taken together, they mean even the traditional claim that the scientists knowingly used inaccurate radiometric dating is redundant. Ötzi was dated partly by dendrochronology, which is not a radiometric dating technique, and the dates of the Xiongnu Empire are from contemporaneous records kept by their neighbours in China.

First a little background, courtesy of the AI source, ChatGPT3.5:

The Xiongnu were a significant nomadic confederation that originated in Central Asia, particularly in the regions of modern-day Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and northern China. They played a crucial role in shaping the history and dynamics of the ancient Eurasian steppe region. Here are some key points about the Xiongnu:

1. Origin and Expansion: The Xiongnu are believed to have emerged around the 3rd century BCE and quickly established themselves as a dominant power in the steppe region. They were known for their skilled horsemanship and nomadic lifestyle, which allowed them to traverse vast distances and exert control over large areas.
2. Society and Culture: Xiongnu society was organized along tribal lines, with a hierarchical structure. They had a chieftain or "shanyu" at the top, followed by subordinate tribal leaders. Their culture was heavily influenced by steppe traditions, including horse riding, pastoralism, and archery. They were also known for their use of mounted warriors and chariots in warfare.
3. Conflict with China: One of the most significant aspects of Xiongnu history is their interaction with the Chinese dynasties, particularly the Han Dynasty. The Xiongnu frequently raided northern Chinese territories and established a tense relationship with the Han rulers. The Chinese even built the Great Wall as a defense against Xiongnu incursions.
4. Diplomacy and Alliances: Throughout their history, the Xiongnu engaged in both military conflicts and diplomatic negotiations with China. At times, they formed alliances or signed treaties with the Chinese in exchange for tribute or gifts. These interactions were often marked by a delicate balance of power and a mutual understanding of the benefits of maintaining stable relations.
5. Decline and Disintegration: By the 2nd century CE, the Xiongnu confederation began to weaken due to internal conflicts, external pressures, and changes in the geopolitical landscape. The rise of other nomadic groups, such as the Xianbei and the Huns, also contributed to their decline. Eventually, the Xiongnu fragmented into smaller groups, some of which merged with neighboring societies, while others faded into history.
6. Legacy: The Xiongnu left a lasting impact on the cultural and historical development of Central Asia and the surrounding regions. Their interactions with China influenced Chinese policies, military strategies, and diplomatic approaches. Additionally, the Xiongnu's nomadic lifestyle and military techniques contributed to the broader cultural and societal dynamics of the Eurasian steppe.
7. Historical Sources: Much of what is known about the Xiongnu comes from Chinese historical records and archaeological findings. Ancient Chinese texts, such as the "Records of the Grand Historian" by Sima Qian, provide valuable insights into the interactions between the Xiongnu and China.

Overall, the Xiongnu were a significant force in the ancient world, shaping the geopolitical landscape of Central Asia and leaving a lasting mark on the history of the region.

An interesting finding from the study is that genetic diversity was widest amongst the lower status individuals and much lower amongst the social elite, suggesting that a culture had developed where a narrow ethnic group had gained control of diverse populations.

And all this diversity in the two thousand years following the genocidal flood, is the Bible and its creationist advocates are to be believed. Clearly a preposterous proposition.

As with the genetic analysis of Ötzi the Iceman, the research into the origins of the per-Mongolian Xiongnu included scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. As the Max Planck Institute’s newsletter explains:

Creationism in Crisis - Ötzi The Iceman Had Anatolian Ancestors

'Ötzi the Iceman'

© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac/Marco Samadelli-Gregor Staschitz

A facial reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman. New evidence suggests he had male-pattern balding and was brown-skinned.

Image credit: Reconstruction by Kennis © South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Foto Ochsenreiter

Dark skin, bald head, Anatolian ancestry | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

In about 3,300 BCE, some 700 years after Bible literalist creationists believe the human population was reduced to just 8 survivors of a genocidal flood inflicted on the world by their 'loving' God, a brown-skinned man, possibly being pursued over the Alps north of Italy, fell into a glacier. He may have died before he fell or he may have died of his injuries from the fall, but a fresh arrow wound in his shoulder may have contributed to his death.

The significance of his genome is that is shows how far the human population of Europe had diversified into distinct groups each with a characteristic DNA signature - something that would not have been possible if the entire human population of the world had evolved from such a narrow genetic bottleneck. Not only had they diversified but had developed distinct cultures and life-styles.

Another significance of this research is that it shows how science is never certain, but constantly reassesses the evidence and revises its collective opinion when the evidence demands it.

Ötzi the Iceman

Ötzi, also known as the Iceman, is a well-preserved mummy of a man who lived during the Copper Age, around 3300 BCE. He was discovered in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name "Ötzi," by German tourists on September 19, 1991, near the border between Austria and Italy. The mummy was found at an altitude of around 3,210 meters (10,530 feet) in the Schnalstal Glacier. Here are some key facts and details about Ötzi the Iceman:

1. Discovery and Preservation: Ötzi's mummy was preserved due to the unique conditions of the glacier, which acted as a natural freezer. His body was naturally mummified over the centuries, allowing researchers to gain insights into his life and the environment he lived in.
2. Age and Appearance: Ötzi was estimated to be around 45 years old at the time of his death. He stood about 1.6 meters (5 feet 3 inches) tall and had a stocky build. He had brown eyes, wore a beard, and had tattoos on various parts of his body, likely created by making small incisions and rubbing charcoal or other pigments into them.
3. Clothing and Equipment: Ötzi's clothing included a coat made of woven grass and leather, a loincloth, leggings, a belt, and a hat. He also wore shoes made of grass and leather. He carried a variety of tools and equipment, including a copper-bladed axe, a flint knife, a quiver with arrows, a backpack, a birch bark container, and a wooden bow.
4. Diet and Lifestyle: Examination of Ötzi's stomach contents and isotopic analysis of his teeth and bones provided insights into his diet. He primarily consumed a diet of meat (from ibex and red deer) and various grains and plants, including einkorn wheat. This indicates a diet typical of the time, as well as evidence of mobility in the alpine region.
5. Health and Injuries: Ötzi's body revealed evidence of several injuries and health conditions. He had a number of broken ribs, possibly indicating a fall or accident. He also had wear-and-tear on his joints, suggesting a physically demanding lifestyle. Additionally, Ötzi had an arrow wound on his left shoulder that likely contributed to his death, as well as signs of head trauma.
6. Copper Axe: One of Ötzi's most significant possessions was a copper-bladed axe, which is one of the earliest examples of metal use in human history. This suggests a level of sophistication in his society's technology and craftsmanship.
7. Genetic Analysis: Ötzi's DNA has been extensively studied, providing insights into his ancestry and genetic traits. This analysis revealed that he had a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease, lactose intolerance, and a higher risk of certain autoimmune disorders.
8. Cultural and Historical Significance: Ötzi's discovery has offered a unique window into the life of an individual from the distant past. Researchers have gained valuable information about ancient diets, clothing, tools, and health conditions. Ötzi has also helped to reconstruct aspects of Copper Age society, including trade routes and cultural practices.
9. Exhibition and Research: Ötzi's mummy is preserved and displayed at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. Researchers continue to study his remains using various advanced techniques to uncover more information about his life, death, and the world he lived in.

Overall, Ötzi the Iceman is a remarkable archaeological discovery that has provided invaluable insights into the lives of our ancient ancestors and their interactions with the environment and technology of their time.

"Tell me all you know about the 'Iceman' known as Ötzi’s." [Response to user request]
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/

Creationism in Crisis - How Watermelons Evolved, With Gene Loss AND Gene Duplication

Cultivated watermelon, Citrullus lanatus

Photo: James E. Scarborough
via Wikipedia Public Domain

Behind the Rind: New Genomic Insights into Watermelon Evolution, Quality, and Resilience - Boyce Thompson Institute

Fig. 6 Fruits types in C. lanatus, C. mucosospermus, C. amarus, and C. colocynthis: a, b C. colocynthis, c C. lanatus subsp. lanatus, d-f C. lanatus subsp. vulgaris, g, h C. mucosospermus, i: Citrullus sp.

Fig. 8 Fruit flesh colour in C. lanatus, C. mucosospermus, C. amarus, and C. colocynthis: a, b C. lanatus subsp. vulgaris, c, d C. mucosospermus, e C. amarus, f C. lanatus

Achigan-Dako, E.G., et al., (2015)

The embarrassment for creationism continues unabated with news that scientists from the Boyce Tompson Institute, Itheca, New York, USA, have worked out how the cultivated watermelon evolved.

This might seem trivial to normal people, but to creationists, it shatters several cherished pieces of dogma and exposes them as bogus.

1. Firstly, the scientists have shown that the process of domestication from wild ancestors included an incident of gene doubling, so creating new genetic information (and increasing the sweetness of the watermelon). Creationists claim there is no mechanism for increasing the information in the genome without the intervention of a magic man doing magic.
2. Secondly, the scientists have also discovered that the process of domestication involved the loss of several genes from the cultivated watermelon genome, yet creationist dogma says all genetic loss is fatal and all mutations are deleterious, and yet here we have an improved cultivar, resulting in millions more watermelons than had the mutations not happened.
3. Thirdly, the Bible claims all life on earth was created by God for its special creation, mankind, and yet here we have evidence that the cultivated watermelon is the result of selective breeding, meaning that, even if we allow for the sake of argument that watermelons were created for mankind, whoever created them didn't do a very good job, or failed to anticipate what humans would require from a watermelon, so we needed to improve on what was provided. Imagine buying an intelligently designed motor car, then finding it needs considerable modification and improvement to make it fit for purpose! Would you buy from that designer again?

That latter point can be made for all domesticated animals, by the way, since very few of them have remained unchanged compared to their wild ancestors.

So, what is the evolutionary history of watermelons?

According to the press release by Aaron Callahan, from the Boyce Thompson Institute :

Creationism in Crisis - The Evolution of Batesian Mimicry in a New Zealand Stonefly

Similar ‘warning’ colouration of the non-toxic mimic Zelandoperla fenestrata stonefly (left), and cyanide-producing Austroperla cyrene (right).

A cyanide-producing Austroperla cyrene sits at the top of this picture, with a mimicking Zelandoperla fenestrata in the center and non-mimicking Zelandoperla fenestrata at the bottom.

Credit: University of Otago

When cheating pays – survival strategy of insect uncovered, News, University of Otago, New Zealand

I've written before about Batesian mimicry as an example of environment-driven evolution and how it depends on an evolutionary arms race - which makes no sense as the work of a single creator god, as creationists believe is responsible for the 'design' of all living organisms.

Batesian mimicry

Batesian mimicry is a fascinating concept in evolutionary biology named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates. It refers to a form of mimicry in which a harmless species closely resembles the appearance of a toxic or dangerous species to deceive predators. This phenomenon is commonly observed in the animal kingdom, particularly among insects, although it can also occur in other groups of organisms.

The key components of Batesian mimicry are:

1. Model Species: The toxic or harmful species that possesses some form of defense mechanism, such as toxicity, stinging, or bad taste. Predators learn to associate the distinct appearance of this model species with the negative consequences of attacking or consuming it.

Creationism in Crisis - A Newly-Discovered Non-Genetic Mode for Inheritance, But It's No Comfort For Creationists

Because babies acquire their first gut microbes passing through their mother’s birth canal, mothers’ microbiomes form the basis of their offspring’s.

Photo: Sarah Chai/Pexels

Hardship affects the gut microbiome across generations | UCLA

Human gut microbiome

Source

The old scientific debate from the early 19th century between Darwinian evolution and Lamarckian evolution all hinged on whether characteristics acquired after birth could be inherited by offspring, as Lamarck thought, or whether what we inherit from our parents is a variation (within limits) of what they inherited from their parents:

Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution are two contrasting theories of evolution that were proposed in the past. Though both sought to explain the process of biological change over time, they differ in their fundamental mechanisms and assumptions.

1. Darwinian Evolution (Theory of Natural Selection):
   • Proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century.
   • Central concept: Natural selection is the main driving force behind evolution.
   • Mechanism: Variation exists within populations, and individuals with traits better suited to the environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over time, these advantageous traits become more common in the population, while less favorable traits are selected against.
   • Inheritance of acquired characteristics: Darwinian evolution does not rely on the inheritance of traits acquired during an organism's lifetime. Instead, it is based on the passing down of genetic information from parents to offspring.
   • Example: Consider a population of giraffes with varying neck lengths. If the environment favors individuals with longer necks (e.g., taller trees for feeding), those with longer necks have a survival advantage and are more likely to pass on their long-necked genes to the next generation.
2. Lamarckian Evolution (Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics):
   • Proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in the early 19th century.
   • Central concept: Evolution is driven by an organism's effort to adapt to its environment and the inheritance of acquired traits.
   • Mechanism: Lamarck proposed that if an organism acquires new characteristics or traits during its lifetime due to its environment's demands, these acquired traits can be passed on to its offspring.
   • Example: Lamarck suggested that if a giraffe stretches its neck throughout its lifetime to reach higher leaves, the elongated neck acquired during its life will be passed on to its offspring, leading to the gradual evolution of longer-necked giraffes over generations.

The key difference between the two theories lies in their view on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Darwinian evolution relies on natural selection acting on existing genetic variation, while Lamarckian evolution suggests that acquired traits during an individual's lifetime can be inherited by their offspring, driving evolutionary change. Lamarckian evolution, however, has been largely discredited by modern genetics and molecular biology, as it does not align with the principles of inheritance through genes and DNA. Instead, the modern understanding of evolution is based on the principles proposed by Darwin, which include the processes of mutation, genetic variation, and natural selection acting on heritable traits.

ChatGPT3 "What is the difference between Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution?" [Response to user request]
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/

That debate has now been opened up again in an unexpected way with the news that an international team of scientists led by UCLA psychologists has shown that information produced during hardship suffered by a woman during pregnancy can be passed on to her baby via its microbiome.

Creationism in Crisis - Now its A Living Nematode From 46,000 years Ago in Siberian Permafrost

Permafrost melts into the Kolyma River outside of Zyryanka, Russia, in 2019. The worms in the new study seem to have survived buried deep in the permafrost for tens of thousands of years.

Michael Robinson Chavez / The Washington Post via Getty Images

Duvannyi Yar thaw site on the banks of the Kolyma River, Siberia, Russia.

Credit: Robert G. M. Spencer

Genome analysis of 46,000-year-old roundworm from Siberian permafrost reveals novel species: MPI-CBG

The problem with clinging to counter-factual beliefs like Bible-literalist creationism, for fear of having to contemplate being wrong, is that you have to keep deciding whether to believe the Bible or the evidence.

Here, for example, is a (to a creationist) key passage from the Bible:

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 7:21-23

Leaving aside the absurdity of believing there was a time just 4000 years ago when the highest mountain would have been covered by a fifteen-cubit (i.e., about 22.5 feet) flood, it is necessary to believe that everything outside the Ark was destroyed. The Bible is quite specific on that point - every living substance was destroyed, including the 'creeping things'!

And that claim has to be set against the evidence provided a couple of days ago by an international team of scientists led by Anastasia Shatilovich, of the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science Russian Academy of Science, Pushchino, Russia, and Vamshidhar R. Gade of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany, that they have revived, analysed the genome of and C14-dated a nematode worm recovered from Siberian permafrost, shown to be 46,000 years old.

So, not only was this not destroyed as the Bible claims, it was around some 36,000 years before the Earth was created, according to creationist fundamental dogma.

And of course, a corollary to that is that the permafrost containing the nematode in suspended animation, also survived a catastrophic flood a few thousand years ago.

But then, to be fair on the Bronze-Age Canaanite hill farmers who plagiarized that Mesopotamian local flood myth, what did they know of real mountains, as opposed to low hills, permafrost, or nematodes? They thought Earth was small, flat and ran on magic, and the sky was a dome to keep the water above it out.

The account of the discovery, and its significance, is explained in a news release by the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics:

Creationism in Crisis - Rogue Mitochondrial DNA - Malevolent Intelligence, Incompetence or Mindless Evolution?

Creationism in Crisis

Rogue Mitochondrial DNA - Malevolent Intelligence, Incompetence or Mindless Evolution?

Mitochondria surrounded by cytoplasm

Credit: Dr David Furness

Transmission em image of mitochondria

© H. Jastrow.

New route to evolution: how DNA from our mitochondria gets into our genomes | University of Cambridge

So often, if only they hadn't learned to ignore it like an elephant in the room, or stay carefully ignorant of it, creationists should be confronting evidence that, if they believe it was designed, could only have been designed by a malevolent or incompetent designer.

Take for example this discovery that sections of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) frequently (in about 1 in 4,000 births) cross into the nuclear DNA, where it can cause cancer.

Creationists insist that this must have been intelligently designed by an omniscient designer who would therefore have known the outcome of its designed processes. The presence of mitochondria in cells is of course, good evidence of how simple, prokaryote cells, evolved into more complex, eukaryote cells by endosymbiosis - something creationists insist didn’t happen, so they are already an acute embarrassment for creationists. Now we have this finding that a supposed intelligent design process would look like a design to cause cancer.
This was discovered recently by a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London. The team were investigating a 2018 claim by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the USA, that there were occasional instances of inheritance of paternal mtDNA, in contradiction to the normally accepted view that mtDNA in inherited exclusively from the maternal line because the sperm head, which fertilizes the egg does not contain any mitochondria.

The Cambridge/London team found that these were in fact examples of the migration of sections of mtDNA into the cell nucleus where they had become incorporated into the nuclear DNA. The process is in theory a two-way process except for two things:

1. There is only one nucleus with two copies of the DNA, but a cell can contain thousands of mitochondria, each with a copy of its DNA so the odds are greatly in favour of sections of mtDNA becoming free-roaming.
2. The nuclear membrane has pores which allow RNA to pass out into the cell, whereas the mitochondrial membrane is an intact barrier through which DNA or RNA can't normally pass.

The scientists’ findings are explained in a Cambridge University press release:

Creationism in Crisis - Migrants Took Agriculture to North Africa 3,000 Years Before Creationists Claim Earth was 'Created' out of Nothing.

Creationism in Crisis

Migrants Took Agriculture to North Africa 3,000 Years Before Creationists Claim Earth was Created out of Nothing.

View of the site Kaf Taht el-Ghar (KTG).

Photograph: Juan Carlos Vera

The Maghreb in North-West Africa

Farming lifestyle in northwestern Africa was ignited by oversea-migrant - Uppsala University, Sweden

A research team from Sweden, Spain and Morocco have found genomic evidence that two waves of migrants took agriculture to North Africa in about 5400 BCE where it was adopted by the local population. One wave came along the north Mediterranean coast and through Iberia, and the second a short time later, from the Levant along the south Mediterranean coat.

For the previous 8,000 years and maybe even longer, the people of the western end of the Maghreb had been more or less isolated and lived as hunter-gatherers. Genetic evidence from 15,000 year old fossils shows that the population were intermediate between the people of the Levant and sub-Saharan Africans, and then, about 7,400 years ago, there was an ingression of Eurasia genes and culture from Spain as agriculturalists migrated to the Maghreb to live alongside the indigenous population, followed about a hundred years later, by a second wave of pastoralists from the Eastern end of the Mediterranean migrating along the North African coast, bringing a third population into the mix.

Later, in the Neolithic, these groups had merged into a single population.

It almost goes without saying that the team found no evidence of the population being exterminated in a flood, to be replaced after about 2000 BCE by a population from the Middle East, all descended from a small, incestuous band of eight related individuals, as they would have been if creationist fairy-tales were real history.

The News release from Uppsala University explains the study:

Creationism in Crisis - Genetic Research is Showing How Humans Evolved as Part of the Primate Family Tree

Creationism in Crisis

Genetic Research is Showing How Humans Evolved as Part of the Primate Family Tree

Baboon in western Tanzania, here at Mahale Mountains National Park, have received genetic input from three lineages.

Photo: Yvonne de Jong and Tom Butynski

Juvenile golden snubnosed monkey at Shennongjia National Park, Central China.

Photo: Julia Ostner

Deutsches Primatenzentrum: Genomes of 233 primate species sequenced

If their dupes understood them, a number of papers published recently in a special 'Primate Genomes' edition of science would be giving creationist cult leaders panic attacks, because they all show how deeply embedded the Theory of Evolution is in modern biology as the explanation for the observable evidence, and it also shows how human evolution fits completely into the science of primate evolution.

The papers are the result of studies by a large international team of researchers including scientists from the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, (Deutsches Primatenzentrum - DPZ). These studies analysed the genomes of 809 individuals from 233 primate species, generating the most complete catalog of genomic information about our closest relatives to date.

It shows, amongst other things that, like the modern humans species, Homo sapiens, which is the result of several periods of diversification then ingression of genes from related species by interbreeding, such as that between H. sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans and others inside and outside Africa, some modern baboons also had an ingression of genes from related species.

As the DPZ news release explains:

Creationism in Crisis - Australia's Dingos are Still Distinct and Showing Signs of Speciation

Slideshow code developed in collaboration with ChatGPT3 at https://chat.openai.com/

New DNA testing shatters 'wild dog' myth: most dingoes are pure

Recent new findings illustrate the way a species will evolve by diverging into related species that may still be able to interbreed even though other indicators show that they should be regarded as a distinct species. It also shows how a single species can diverge into populations as the precursor to evolving into subspecies and then species.

How are dingoes unique?

Dingoes possess several unique characteristics that distinguish them from domestic dogs and wolves. These characteristics include:

1. Size and Body Proportions: Dingoes are typically smaller than wolves and many domestic dog breeds. They exhibit a lean and agile body structure with a head that is broader and flatter than that of domestic dogs.
2. Coat Color and Texture: Dingoes commonly have a sandy or reddish-brown coat color, although variations can occur. Their coat is usually short, dense, and well-adapted to the Australian climate. Some dingoes have a white chest and facial markings.
3. Cranial Features: Dingoes often have a skull shape that is different from both domestic dogs and wolves. Their skull is generally longer and less domed than that of most dogs, with a narrower zygomatic arch (cheekbone) region.
4. Dentition: Dingoes possess a unique set of teeth, including relatively large canine teeth and sharp carnassial teeth adapted for cutting flesh. Compared to domestic dogs, their teeth are generally larger and exhibit less size variation.
5. Behavior and Social Structure: Dingoes are highly adaptable and display behavior suited to their semi-arid and arid habitats. They are generally more independent and less social than domestic dogs. Dingoes often live in small packs or as solitary individuals, whereas wolves form larger, more structured packs.
6. Reproduction and Breeding: Dingoes typically have a different breeding cycle than domestic dogs, with a once-a-year breeding season. They also exhibit different mating behaviors and have fewer puppies per litter compared to many domestic dog breeds.

It's important to note that while these characteristics are typical of dingoes, there can be variations among individuals and populations. Additionally, some of these traits may be influenced by interbreeding between dingoes and domestic dogs, which can introduce genetic diversity into the dingo population.

ChatGPT3 "What are the unique characteristics that distinguish dingoes from domestic dogs and wolves?" [Response to user question]
Retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/

It also shows how, as science refines and improves its techniques, new information brings about a change of consensus in a classic example of scientific opinion changing when the information changes, unlike religion which needs to find reasons not to change its collective mind despite new information, or risk another fragmentation into mutually hostile sects.

The study is a re-examination and re-evaluation of the status of the Australian dingo, Canis dingo, in view of improved DNA testing. Using earlier techniques which involved comparing just 23 DNA markers, geneticists had concluded that there were very few pure-bred dingoes left as most had DNA derived from hybridization with feral domestic dogs, Canis familiaris. On that basis, the dingo was reclassified as a wild dog and an invasive pest, and several eradication programs were implemented.

But a new study, using newer techniques which enable the scientists to compare not just 23 but 195,000 DNA markers has revealed a very different picture. This shows not only that ingression of familiaris DNA has been very limited in some areas, but that the dingo species can be regarded as four distinct populations. In other words, not only is the dingo still a species distinct from feral dogs but the dingo species is showing early signs of speciating.

It is now accepted that dingoes have not evolved directly from wolves so are not a subspecies of Canis lupus but are descended from the Southeast Asian domestic dog, meaning they were taken to Australia by humans and have evolved to adapt to the Australian environment. They have also been there so long that they have become an important part of the Australian ecosystem as apex predators, so can't now be regarded as an alien species, unlike rabbits, rats, European foxes, mice, cane toads and domestic cats.

The new study, by geneticists from the University of New South Wales and Sydney University, NSW, Australia, with colleagues in the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, is published, open access, in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Three of the scientists, Kylie M Cairns, Research fellow, UNSW Sydney, Mathew Crowther, Associate professor, University of Sydney and Professor Mike Letnic, Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, UNSW Sydney have explained their research and its significance for dingo conservation in an article in The Conversation. Their article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency.

Creationism in Crisis - The Evolution of Life and the Genetic Code.

Genetic information is stored as long, complex sequences of the four different bases in DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). Triplets of these bases are interpreted by the genetic machinery as instructions to add a certain amino acid to a protein.

Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library/Getty Images Plus

Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer

By way of an introduction to this article on abiogenesis, I'm going to try to dispel the common, but evidence-free claim from creationists that the genetic code is so complex that it must have been designed by an intelligent designer.

This is, of course, nothing but the usual argument from ignorant incredulity and a false dichotomy fallacy - I don't know enough, I can't be bothered to learn, and I can't imagine how something could have arisen naturally, so God did it - and of course it must be the locally popular god because there are only two possibilities; the current science or the local god. It's an argument that demonstrates better than most the scientific illiteracy, intellectual bankruptcy and cultural chauvinism of creationism.

First, I look at the genetic codes and how it could have evolved naturally, without a supernatural magician making chemistry and physics do things they couldn't do without it, or making the highly improbable happen - as though the notion of an undetectable entity existing outside space and time but able to influence things inside space and time makes any sense.

This comes in two forms: a conversation with an AI chat bot, and the book, Life Ascending by Nick Lane.

Firstly, a conversation with ChatGPT3:

Creationism in Crisis - How the Human Genome Holds a Record of Our Evolutionary History

Creationism in Crisis

How the Human Genome Holds a Record of Our Evolutionary History

Reconstruction of an early Eurasian H. sapiens from remains found in Greece

Ancient humans may have paused in Arabia for 30,000 years on their way out of Africa

The first anatomically modern Homo sapiens to migrate out of Africa were almost certainly hunter-gatherers. This much can be deduced from the fact that agriculturalists tend to be relatively sedentary and tied to the land. Our early ancestors, however, were migrants who spread relatively rapidly and one of the best habitats for hunter-gatherers is the coast where food in the form of shell-fish is abundant.

It is often assumed that these migrants travelled up the Nile or the Red Sea coast to the Middle East, and dispersed from there, but there is an alternative coastal route once they arrived at the Horn of Africa.

It is a short sea journey from there to what is now Yemen in Arabia and from there either up the Hijaz to the Middle East or along the south-east coat to what is now Oman. From Oman it is again a short sea-crossing at the Gulf of Hormuz, or even up the Arabian Gulf coast, into what is now Iran. From there, the whole of south and south-east Asia is accessible by coastal spread, as is Mesopotamia and then Central Asia either by going round the Black Sea coast, or the more difficult rout through the Caucasus mountains between the Black Se and the Caspian Sea.

Even Australia could be reached via land at a time when sea-levels were much lower than today at glacial maxima.

And now, a team of Australian researchers led by Raymond Tobler and Yassine Souilmi, of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, have found genetic evidence of a 30,000 year period of evolutionary adaptation to a colder environment, probably in Arabia of the immediate area, prior to a rapid dispersal across Eurasia as far as Australia. Functional targets in the genome include multiple interacting loci involved in fat storage, neural development, skin physiology, and cilia function, with associations with multiple modern Western diseases.

The team’s findings were published recently in PNAS, sadly behind a paywall, although the Abstract is published open access.

Three of the team have also written about their research and findings in an article in The Conversation. There article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency: