Re: [asa] AIG argues (again) for design

>
> What do evolutionists say about how animals could develop the adaptive
> capacity to become accustomed to storing toxic poisons which kill others but
> not themselves?

At least four methods of havig this capacity are possible:
-find something that poisons your enemy but doesn't harm you
-find a way to store the poison so it doesn't affect you
-have a poison that has to be delivered in the right way/to the right place
in order to be harmful (e.g., a venom that can be digested safely but causes
injury if injected into muscle)
-have a poison that forms in a reaction upon the release of substances that
are safe by themselves

Somewhat different scenarios would be needed to account for different types
of poison. For example, snake, lizard, and shrew venom seems to at least in
part be modified salivary enzymes. It's not hard to see how an enzyme that
incapacitated the prey, if it evolved, would be a useful thing to include in
one's bite. Also, digestive enzymes are functioning to break down tissue
anyway, so a somewhat more powerful version isn't that big of a jump.
Developing fangs provides a good delivery mechanism. (Fossil fangs are
problematic for the "all carnivory appeared after the Flood" claim.)

Some animals take up poisons from what they eat and use it defensively. In
this situation, ability to deal with the toxin in order to eat the plant or
whatever would not be hard to modify into an ability to store the toxin as a
surprise for one's own predators.

All organisms produce waste that is not especially healthy for them to just
accumulate. They therefore have some capacity to deal with and get rid of
this waste. This is a big part of the job of kidneys, livers, and lower
intestines, for example. Adjusting this system so as to sequester some sort
of hazardous product within the tissues is not that big a change.

>

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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