Saturday, March 09, 2013
Once a parasite always a parasite? No.
Another brick removed from the old theoretical structure of Random Evolution, another brick added to the Grand Blueprint idea:
A pair of University of Michigan biologists say they found evidence that contradicts one of the fundamental laws of evolution. .... Pavel Klimov and Barry O'Connor indicate evolution is not a one way road. During a study focused on the evolution of free-living house dust mites, the duo found evidence that challenges Dollo's Law which stipulates that once an organism evolves and assumes certain features it cannot drop them and adopt the form of its ancestors. ... Researchers analyzed DNA from more than 700 different mite species and tested 62 different hypotheses about their evolution. Their findings suggest dust mites have forgone the parasitic lifestyle of their ancestors who depended on their host and instead have become free-feeding organisms that dine on such things as discarded human skin.Really shouldn't be a surprise by now, and we really shouldn't have any "laws" about irreversibility. If you must have assumptions, the cleanest assumption is that a wide range of genetic combinations are always available to every living thing. We won't start to learn how wide until we get rid of the random mutation crap.
Labels: Grand Blueprint
¶ 2:54 AM
