Creationism in Crisis - How Interspecies Rivalry Gave Rise To Multiple Hominin Species

A cast of the skull of Homo Heidelbergensis

Credit: The Duckworth Laboratory

Australopithecus sediba

Interspecies competition led to even more forms of ancient human – defying evolutionary trends in vertebrates | University of Cambridge

The gulf between science and creationism continues to widen with the publication of an open access research paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution in which the two authors argue that early hominins speciates as a result of inter-species competition, but not like most vertebrates through competition for niches, but because the evolution of technology enabled species to evolve quickly into new niches with what amounts to memetic evolution, i.e., evolution of cultures which, in an intelligent species can occur much more quickly than the slow, genetic evolution in other species.

In this respect the pattern of early hominin evolution was more like that of beetles evolving on an island.

Creationists, by contrast, as still stuck desperately looking for evidence that all humans are descended from a single pair of humans who were magically made from dirt just a few thousand years ago.

The researchers, Laura A. van Holstein and Robert A. Foley of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, explain their research in a Cambridge University new release:

Creationism in Crisis - How People Lived In Caves in Arabia Before, During And After Creationism's Mythical Genocidal Flood

Inside the Umm Jirsan Cave system.

Credit: Green Arabia Project

The entrance to Umm Jirsan Cave.

Credit: Green Arabia Project

First evidence of human occupation in lava tube cave in Saudi Arabia – Griffith News

In a stunning, if incidental and unintentional, rebuttal of creationist mythology, a team of palaeontologists led by scientists from Grifith University' Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), have uncovered evidence of human occupation of caves in Saudia Arabia about 10,000 - 3,500 years ago.

This, of course, as any creationist will pretend isn’t significant, means that humans were living in these caves from before 'Creation Week' right through the mythical global genocidal flood, and beyond, and were completely undisturbed by any of it.

How Science Works - Darwin's Wonderful Worms Revisited

Earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris

How a little-known clergyman studying worms by candlelight in the 1700s inspired Charles Darwin – but didn’t get the credit he deserved

Almost exactly 10 years ago today, I wrote an article in praise of the last work Charles Darwin wrote about, in 1881, where he showed how earthworms were not the garden pests they had been assumed to be, but how they were essential for creating the soil and how their activity had transformed the landscape. He showed how they were responsible for burying very much of history, transforming the budding science of archaeology.

He also showed how the planet is not a static place, unchanged since its 'creation' like the Christian dogma taught, but a dynamic and changing place where the present has been shaped by natural forces which were also responsible for the history that archaeology and geology were revealing.

So, it's rewarding to write about how Darwin did this research and particularly how he built on the knowledge of those who had gone before him, in the best traditions of science, where knowledge is accumulative and build on the known to discover the unknown and so advance the sum total of human knowledge. The sad thing is that either deliberately, or through forgetfulness in his advanced years, Darwin neglected to give due credit to Rev. Gilbert White.

This is the subject of an article by Kevin Richard Butt, a Reader in Ecology, University of Central Lancashire, UK, published in The Conversation. His article is reprinted under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Creationism in Crisis - How Plant Leaves Were Evolving 201 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Artistic - and speculative - reconstruction of the Furcula granulifer

© Dolev Fabrikant.

Fossil leaves of Furcula granulifer from the Late Triassic, Greenland, scale bar = 5cm.

© Mario Coiro, Leyla Seyfullah

Seed ferns: Plants experimented with reticulated leaf venation 201 million years ago

Check any plan leaf and it will normally be one of two types - the monocotyledons with parallel leaf veins and the dicotyledons with a network of veins organised around a central vein with regular branches.

But this has not always been so. As a team of researchers at Vienna University, in collaboration with colleagues from the National Museum of Natural History in Stockholm and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, have discovered, plants seem to have evolved the network pattern of leaf several times over the course of their evolution with most of them becoming extinct fairly quickly on an evolutionary timescale.

Their findings are published, open access, in the journal New Phytologist and explained in a University of Vienna news release:

Creationism in Crisis - How Copy & Paste Errors Created New Genetic Information - 700 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Mayfly, one of the twenty species studied for the research published today.

Credit: Isabel Almudi

Examples of bilaterans

Centre for Genomic Regulation Website

Contrary to creationists dogma that no new genetic information can arise in a genome without god-magic because of some half-baked notion that the Third Law of Thermodynamics, which applies to energy, somehow applies to genetic information, researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, have shown how errors in replication in DNA some 700 million years ago eventually resulted in a vast supergroup of animals (the bilaterans, i.e. animals with bilateral symmetry) including vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals), and invertebrates (insects, arthropods, molluscs, worms, echinoderms and many more).

These errors where whole genomes and genes were duplicated, created the condition where the original genes could continue to function while copies of them were free to mutate and produce new genes with new functions, under the control of natural selection which retains anything which is better than what preceded it and quickly eliminate anything which is worse.

Bilaterians are animals that exhibit bilateral symmetry, meaning they can be divided into two equal halves along a single plane. The vast majority of animals on Earth are bilaterians, including many familiar groups such as:

1. Mammals: Humans, dogs, cats, elephants, and dolphins are all examples of bilaterians within the mammalian group.
2. Birds: Birds, like sparrows, eagles, penguins, and ostriches, are also bilaterians.
3. Reptiles: Snakes, lizards, turtles, and crocodiles exhibit bilateral symmetry.
4. Amphibians: Frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts are examples of bilaterians within the amphibian class.
5. Fish: Most fish species, including tuna, salmon, sharks, and goldfish, are bilaterians.
6. Insects: Butterflies, ants, bees, beetles, and flies are bilaterians within the vast group of insects.
7. Arachnids: Spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites are bilaterians within the arachnid class.
8. Mollusks: Snails, slugs, octopuses, and squids exhibit bilateral symmetry.
9. Annelids: Earthworms, leeches, and marine worms are examples of bilaterians within the annelid phylum.
10. Echinoderms: While not as obvious due to their radial symmetry as adults, echinoderms like sea stars and sea urchins exhibit bilateral symmetry during their larval stages.

These are just a few examples, but bilaterians encompass an incredibly diverse range of animal life on Earth.

The researchers have published their findings in Nature Ecology & Evolution and have explained it in a news release from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG):

Creationism in Crisis - Jumping Jehosaphat! It's Giant Kangaroos 30,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'!

Protemnodon viator

Impression of South-eastern South Australia during the Pleistocene
(~500 thousand years ago)

Peter Schouten

We found three new species of extinct giant kangaroo – and we don’t know why they died out when their cousins survived

Archaeologists have re-assesses the fossils of giant kangaroos that lived in the Pleistocene along with other megafauna such as giant goannas (an Australian lizard) or Megalania, Varanus priscus, that grew to 4 meters (about 13 feet) long and went extinct about 40,000 years ago along with much of the megafauna. One of these kangaroos, the short-faced kangaroo Procoptodon goliah grew to three metres (9.5 feet) and probably weighed over 250 kilograms (about 550 lbs).

Why these large animals went extinct and what part if any the arrival of Homo sapiens played any part in it is a matter of debate, but what is not a matter for debate is whether or not they existed and when. Their discovery is explained by Isaac A. R. Kerr, a Research Assistant in the Palaeontology Laboratory, Flinders University, Australia in an open access article in The Conversation. His article is reprinted here, reformatted for stylistic consistency, under a Creative Commons license:

How Science Works - Tracking How Great Tits In An Oxfordshire Wood Are Responding To Climate Change

Wytham Wood, Oxfordshire, UK

Early morning, Wytham Wood

The great tits in this Oxford wood are adapting their breeding times as climate changes – here’s how

This article caught my eye because it concerns the birds in a wood which is local to me - Wytham Wood, near Oxford, to which I have licensed access. This is reputedly the most intensively studied area of woodland in the world, belonging, as it does, to Oxford University.

Wytham Woods form an iconic location that has been the subject of continuous ecological research programmes, many dating back to the 1940s. The estate has been owned and maintained by the University of Oxford since 1942. The Woods are often quoted as being one of the most researched pieces of woodland in the world, and their 1000 acres are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The wooded parts of the Wytham Estate comprise ancient semi-natural woodland (dating to the last Ice Age), secondary woodland (dating to the seventeenth century), and modern plantations (1950s and 60s). The fourth key habitat is the limestone grassland found at the top of the hill. Other smaller habitats include a valley-side mire and a series of ponds.

The site is exceptionally rich in flora and fauna, with over 500 species of plants, a wealth of woodland habitats, and 800 species of butterflies and moths.

https://www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk/

Through intensive observation over successive years, researchers are able to measure changes in behaviour of species such as the Great Tit, Parus major with some of the best examples of observational biology in the form of research papers. For example, a few years ago a team of researchers showed that the British race of Great tits were diverging from their European relatives with changes in the beaks probably reflecting the fact that we in Britain provide feeding stations for birds to sustain them through the winter much more frequently than other Europeans, so the British Great tits are evolving so they can get the food in the bird feeders in British gardens.

In the following article, ecologist, David López Idiáquez, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Oxford, explains how their research is measuring how Great tits are responding to climate change. His article is reprinted here from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency, with photographs from Internet sources:

Creationism in Crisis - When Earth Was Flooded, According To Creationist Mythology, Australian Aboriginal People Were Making Pots And Campfires And Sailing To Pacific Islands

View across excavation to Blue Lagoon and reef flat.

Photograph: Ian J. McNiven.

Aboriginal people made pottery and sailed to distant offshore islands thousands of years before Europeans arrived

Sometimes you wonder whether creationists ever stop to think whether what they believe is rational, then you realise that most of them are from America where parochial ignorance and cultural chauvinism are the norm. They can believe, for example, that a global flood which left ancient cultures intact and their artifacts just where they left them, and which failed to lay down the predictable global layer of sediment full of jumbled fossils was still a global flood because er... Grand Canyon.

So, news that Australian archaeologists have unearthed potshards from 6,500 years ago in a shell midden which can be accurately dated (unlike potshards), will almost certainly pass unnoticed by the majority of American creationists.

But for those few who are interested in the truth, here is an article by Sean Ulm Sean Ulm, Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, James Cook University, Ian J. McNiven, Professor of Indigenous Archaeology; Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity & Heritage, Monash University and Kenneth McLean, Director, Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge describing how they found this evidence. Their article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Creationism in Crisis - How Multicellularity Evolved - With New Genetic Information

Brown Algae

Evolved within past 200,000 years

Green Alaga, Stigeoclonium sp.

Via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Macroalgal deep genomics illuminate multiple paths to aquatic, photosynthetic multicellularity: Molecular Plant

What are the main types of algae and how do they differ? Algae are classified into several main groups based on their characteristics, including pigmentation, cellular structure, and mode of reproduction. The main types of algae include:

1. Diatoms (Bacillariophyta):
   • Diatoms are single-celled algae characterized by their unique glass-like silica cell walls called frustules.
   • They are typically found in freshwater and marine environments.
   • Diatoms are important primary producers and play a significant role in the global carbon cycle.
2. Green Algae (Chlorophyta):
   • Green algae encompass a diverse group of algae that are mostly freshwater but also found in marine and terrestrial environments.
   • They contain chlorophyll a and b, giving them a green color, similar to land plants.
   • Green algae can be unicellular, colonial, filamentous, or multicellular, with a wide range of morphologies.
3. Red Algae (Rhodophyta):
   • Red algae are predominantly marine algae, although some species can also be found in freshwater.
   • They contain pigments like chlorophyll a and various accessory pigments, including phycobiliproteins, giving them shades of red, pink, or purple.
   • Red algae often have complex multicellular structures and are important contributors to coral reef ecosystems.
4. Brown Algae (Phaeophyta):
   • Brown algae are primarily marine algae, commonly found in cold-water habitats.
   • They contain chlorophyll a and c, along with fucoxanthin, which gives them their characteristic brown color.
   • Brown algae can range from small filamentous forms to large, complex seaweeds like kelps.
5. Blue-Green Algae (Cyanobacteria or Cyanophyta):
   • Despite being called algae, cyanobacteria are actually prokaryotic organisms, classified within the domain Bacteria.
   • They are photosynthetic and often form colonies or filaments.
   • Cyanobacteria can be found in diverse habitats, including freshwater, marine environments, soil, and even extreme environments like hot springs.
   • Some cyanobacteria can produce toxins under certain conditions, leading to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and posing risks to aquatic life and human health.

These main types of algae differ in their pigmentation, cellular structure, habitat preferences, and ecological roles. While some are beneficial and essential for ecosystem health, others can become problematic under certain conditions, such as nutrient pollution or climate change. Understanding the characteristics and ecological functions of different types of algae is crucial for managing and conserving aquatic ecosystems.

Today’s refutation of creationists dogma comes in the form of an open access paper just published in the Cell Press journal, Molecular Plant. Research biologists have revealed how multicellularity evolved several times independently in algae, and how many of the new genes were acquired initially by viruses.

This gives the lie to creationist claims that new information can't arise in the genome because of some half-baked confusion of information with energy and a nonsensical assumption that new genetic information would need to come from nothing.

And of course, like about 99.99% of the history of life on Earth, it all happened in that very long period of pre-'Creation Week' history between Earth forming in an accretion disc around the sun and creationism's little god creating a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East out of nothing, according to creationist mythology

In information provided by Cell Press ahead of publication, the scientists at New York Abu Dhabi University and Technology Innovation Institute, United Arab Emirates, said:

A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or "seaweed," to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity independently and during very different time periods by acquiring genes that enable cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, and cell differentiation, researchers report April 12 in the journal Molecular Plant. Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral origins. The study, which increased the total number of sequenced macroalgal genomes from 14 to 124, is the first to investigate macroalgal evolution through the lens of genomics.

This is a big genomic resource that will open the door for many more studies. Macroalgae play an important role in global climate regulation and ecosystems, and they have numerous commercial and ecoengineering applications, but until now, there wasn't a lot of information about their genomes.

Alexandra Mystikou, co-first author
Division of Science and Math
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Macroalgae live in both fresh and seawater and are complex multicellular organisms with distinct organs and tissues, in contrast to microalgae, which are microscopic and unicellular.

There are three main groups of macroalgae -- red (Rhodophyta), green (Chlorophyta), and brown (Ochrophyta) -- that independently evolved multicellularity at very different times and in very different environmental conditions.

Rhodophytes and Chlorophytes both evolved multicellularity over a billion years ago, while Ochrophytes only became multicellular in the past 200,000 years.

To investigate the evolution of macroalgal multicellularity, the researchers sequenced 110 new macroalgal genomes from 105 different species originating from fresh and saltwater habitats in diverse geographies and climates.

The researchers identified several metabolic pathways that distinguish macroalgae from microalgae, some of which may be responsible for the success of invasive macroalgal species.

Many of these metabolic genes appear to have been donated by algae-infecting viruses, and genes with a viral origin were especially prevalent in the more recently evolved brown algae.

They found that macroalgae acquired many new genes that are not present in microalgae on their road to multicellularity.

For all three lineages, key acquisitions included genes involved in cell adhesion (which enables cells to stick together), cell differentiation (which allows different cells to develop specialized functions), cell communication, and inter-cellular transport.

Many brown algal genes associated with multicellular functions had signature motifs that were only otherwise present in the viruses that infect them. It's kind of a wild theory that's only been hinted at in the past, but from our data it looks like these horizontally transferred genes were critical factors for evolving multicellularity in the brown algae.

David Nelson, co-first author
Division of Science and Math
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Creationism in Crisis - Another Mystery Solved By Science - Giant Ichthyosaurs From 250 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

A reconstruction of a gigantic ichthyosaur - floating dead on the surface of the ocean.

© Image: Marcello Perillo/University of Bonn

Do some mysterious bones belong to gigantic ichthyosaurs? — University of Bonn

The thing about disagreements in science is that they aren't used as an excuse for persecution and schism, based on the notion that the side with the most power or the most followers wins as though truth can be determined by violence or opinion polls. In science, disagreements lead to discovery because in scientific debate the fact are, or should be, neutral, so they can referee the debate. The side with the evidence wins and the losers graciously accept that they were wrong.

This is the case of the long-standing disagreement in palaeontology over the mystery of giant bones which regularly turn up in deposits on Europe, which were first discovered in 1850 by the British naturalist Samuel Stutchbury, who reported finding a large cylindrical bone in Aust Cliff, near Bristol, UK. Similar fossils have also been found at sites around Europe, including Bonenburg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and Provence, France. Stutchbury assumed they were from an extinct crocodile-like land animal, labyrinthodontia, but others disagreed. Other candidates were long-necked sauropods and an as yet unidentified, large dinosaur.

Not the mystery may have been solved by two palaeontologists working at the University of Bonn, Germany. They have published their findings, open access, in the journal PeerJ and explain it in a Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn news release:

Creationism in Crisis - How An Early Jawless Fish Was Feeding - About 400 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Rhinopteraspis dunensis

Artistic reconstruction - via Wikipedia

Fossil of Rhinopteraspis dunensis

Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

3D mouth of an ancient jawless fish suggests they were filter-feeders, not scavengers or hunters - University of Birmingham

Today's incidental refutation of creationism comes to us from an international team of palaeontologists led by scientists from the University of Birmingham. They have shown how an early jawless fish was feeding, almost 400 million years before creationism's little pet god decided to create a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, in what creationists refer to as 'Creation Week'.

The researchers have used CT scanning techniques to construct a 3D image of the mouth-parts of Rhinopteraspis dunensis, an early, heavily-armoured boney fish that lived some 380 million years ago.

Creationism in Crisis - News Structure Evolved in Just 36 Years - 'Macro-Evolution' in Progress

Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula

Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula

Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource | PNAS

Because of the regularity with which creationists demand evidence of 'macro-evolution' claiming that it has never been observed, I had decided to repost an expanded version of this article I originally wrote in 1918, to include more of the scientific evidence reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

It's another one of those 'non-existent' things that creationists must dread being shown.

No. This time it's not yet another of those 'missing' transitional fossils or intermediate forms. This time it's yet another example of something else 'impossible' and 'never observed'. It's yet another example of observed rapid evolution, including the evolution of new structures.

Creationism in Crisis - How A Complex Organ Evolved Naturally

Spotted dolphins, Stenella frontalis

Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles | Hokkaido University

There is nothing a creationist fraud likes more than an organ or process that can be presented as 'irreducibly complex' because it will only work if all components are present and in the right place. They can sell this to their dupes as an example of something they claim couldn't have evolved gradually because it only works when all components are assembled, with no functional intermediate stages, so it must have been 'intelligently designed' - by the locally-popular god, obviously.

Creationist guru Michael J Behe, used the example of the E. coli flagellum for that purpose, confident that his target dupes would not be aware that almost all the components of the proton motor were present in the Type III secretory system and only needed a few minor changes to function as a hugely advantageous organ of motility. The process of exaptation of redundant structures is quite sufficient to explain how 'irreducibly complex' structures can evolve.

What are the current theories of how the Escherichia coli flagella evolved? The evolution of Escherichia coli flagella is a subject of ongoing research and debate among biologists. While there isn't a single universally accepted theory, there are several hypotheses and models proposed to explain the evolution of bacterial flagella, including:

1. Co-option Hypothesis: This hypothesis suggests that the flagellum evolved from pre-existing structures that were repurposed for motility. Some researchers propose that the flagellum shares ancestry with the Type III secretion system (T3SS), a needle-like structure used by bacteria to inject toxins or other proteins into host cells. According to this hypothesis, mutations and selective pressures led to the transformation of T3SS components into flagellar components.
2. Selective Advantage Hypothesis: This hypothesis proposes that the early ancestors of bacteria acquired flagella as a means of enhancing their ability to move towards favorable environments or away from harmful ones. The ability to move towards nutrient-rich areas or away from toxic substances would have provided a significant selective advantage, leading to the evolution and refinement of flagellar structures over time.
3. Genomic Evidence: Comparative genomics studies have provided insights into the evolution of flagella by examining the genetic sequences of various bacterial species. By analyzing similarities and differences in flagellar genes across different organisms, researchers can infer evolutionary relationships and trace the origins of flagellar components.
4. Modular Evolution: Some researchers propose that the flagellum evolved through a process of modular evolution, where individual components or substructures of the flagellum evolved independently before being integrated into a functional motility apparatus. This model suggests that the flagellum may have originated from the sequential addition and modification of simpler structures, such as proto-flagella or pili.
5. Evolutionary Intermediates: Studying the flagella of diverse bacterial species can provide insights into the evolutionary intermediates that may have existed during the transition from non-motile to motile forms. By identifying and characterizing these intermediates, researchers can gain a better understanding of the stepwise process by which flagella evolved.

Overall, while there is still much to learn about the precise evolutionary history of E. coli flagella, ongoing research efforts continue to refine our understanding of how these remarkable structures originated and diversified over time.

Just such an example of exaptation of redundant structures has just been revealed by researchers working Hokkaido University, Japan, who have shown that the complex echolocation system used by the toothed whales such as dolphins and orcas evolved out of the muscles and jaw bones that had previously been used to chew food but were redundant due to evolutionary changes which meant the whales swallowed their food whole.

The team have published their findings in the journal Gene. It is explained in a Hokkaido University news release: Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles

Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the jaw.

Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles

Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the jaw.

Illustration of the body plan of a toothed whale, with a cross section of the head showing the melon (dark yellow) and the extramandibular fat bodies (light yellow) which are key organs for using sound such as echolocation.

Hayate Takeuchi, Takashi Fritz Matsuishi, Takashi Hayakawa. Gene. January 20, 2024

Dolphins and whales use sound to communicate, navigate and hunt. New research suggests that the collections of fatty tissue that enable toothed whales to do so may have evolved from their skull muscles and bone marrow.

Scientists at Hokkaido University determined DNA sequences of genes which were expressed in acoustic fat bodies—collections of fat around the head that toothed whales use for echolocation. They measured gene expression in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). Their findings were published in the journal Gene.

The evolution of acoustic fat bodies in the head—the melon in the whale forehead, extramandibular fat bodies (EMFB) alongside the jawbone, and intramandibular fat bodies (IMFB) within the jawbone—was essential for sound use such as echolocation. However, little is known about the genetic origins of those fatty tissues.

How Eyes Evolved - A Worm's Eye View

Vanadis cf. formosa

Photo: Michael Bok

Marvelous eyes, but you be the judge of this sea critter’s beauty. Vanadis is a byname of the Norse goddess of love, Freya.

Photo: Michael Bok

Mediterranean marine worm has developed eyes "as big as millstones"; – University of Copenhagen

Creationists love to cite the eye as an example of irreducible complexity' which could not have evolved by Darwinian step-wise evolution because anything less than a whole eye can't function as an eye.

They even misquote Darwin who, so they claim, admitted the evolution of the eye could not be explained, as though the entire unifying theory of biology rests on the opinion of one man who wrote his books about 160 years ago. But in their usual intellectually and morally bankrupt way, what they fail to do is to give the whole quote in the context in which Darwin used it to show that his theory of evolution was fully capable of explaining how something as complex as an eye could have evolved. It was typical of his style that he would set out a problem for biology, then show how his theory solved that problem. (see the full quote later).