RE: It's the Bible or evolution

Cornelius responded to this:
 
>> There is one example of an HERV which is present
>> in only one copy in human and several ape genomes. In all it is at
the
>> same position.
 
> Yes, and there are also HERVs at the same positions that do not follow

> the common descent pattern. Again, this is special pleading.
 
Genomes are constantly evolving. After species separation a new species
is exposed to continual bombardment by foreign intruders. Some end up
in the genome. That shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
 
It reminds me of a story Edward Max, a gene researcher at NIH, told me.
 
He was studying processed pseudogenes in the NIH lab. A processed
pseudogene results when a segment of RNA gets inadvertently caught up in
the DNA and survives in the genome of the descendents. It could be
likened to a copy machine that has marks on the glass left from where
someone made a copy before the White Out was dry. All subsequent copies
of anything will have the same identical marks and could be traced to
the same copy machine until someone cleans the glass.
 
Max found the same processed pseudogene at the same locale in the
genomes of both humans and gorillas but not in chimpanzees. This led
him to publish an article that this was an indication that man and
gorillas split after the chimpanzees split off contrary to the
commonly-accepted belief that man and chimp were the last to split from
the higher primate tree.
 
Prompted by the article a Japanese research lab made a careful ananysis
of the chimp genome and found that there was still a remnant of the same
processed pseudogene left in chimp DNA although most of it had been
purged.
 
So Max had a little egg on his face and published a retraction of his
earlier article.
 
In short, endogenous retroviral sequences and processed pseudogenes are
solid indicators of common descent and help researchers map out trees,
or bushes if you prefer, that trace species evolution from twigs and
branches back to original trunks.
 
Naturally, the picture becomes more cloudy as we go back 3.8 billion
years and ponder the nature and origin of the first organic replicator.
But out at the recent man-chimp, crocadille-alligator, elephant-mammoth
splits, the totality of genetic evidence is overwhelming - unless one
wishes to remain "willingly ignorant."
 
~Dick Fischer~ Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
Received on Thu Oct 6 12:35:27 2005