Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community
Topic

devolution

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 9, 2021
Categorized
Evolution
Tagged
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Classic in devolution: Burrowing snakes have poor eyesight, challenging theory

Denyse O'Leary
December 9, 2021
Evolution
This find challenges the hypothesis that all snakes living across the world today evolved from extreme burrowers, because the vision genes lost in scolecophidians are present in most other living snakes. The researchers say it would be extremely unlikely for such genetic deficiencies to have been reversed through evolution. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 30, 2021
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Two new papers support Michael Behe’s thesis in Darwin Devolves

Denyse O'Leary
November 30, 2021
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
The thesis is that much evolution consists in dumping rather than adding complexity. Details, details. Subtraction is just addition with minus numbers, right? ;) Would it be legal to teach Darwin Devolves in a U.S. school system? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 26, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design
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Insect parasite replaces fish’s tongue — and it all works

Denyse O'Leary
October 26, 2021
Intelligent Design
The tongue-eating louse is the only known life form to completely replace an organ in another animal. The takehome point is that devolution (shedding independent characteristics in order to survive, perhaps symbiotically) leads the history of life forms down some strange paths. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 21, 2021
Categorized
extinction, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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New findings on the devolution of tuskless elephants

Denyse O'Leary
October 21, 2021
extinction, Intelligent Design
Why were two-thirds of the tuskless babies females? "They also suspected that the relevant gene was dominant – meaning that a female needs only one altered gene to become tuskless — and that when passed to male embryos, it may short-circuit their development." Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 16, 2021
Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Reptiles evolved, de-evolved, re-evolved teeth

Denyse O'Leary
October 16, 2021
Evolution, Intelligent Design
In short, when researchers actually looked at reptile tooth history, it was hardly a simple evolution tale at all. It seems as if there are plans that life forms can access, perhaps within their genomes. But how do they trigger the needed changes, as opposed to just going extinct? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 1, 2021
Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

Michael Behe on extreme devolution: “Gnawing off a leg”

Denyse O'Leary
October 1, 2021
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Behe: Like tusks to elephants, the proteins are presumably useful to the parasite, other things being equal. But when the environment changes and the proteins become a net drawback, the quickest evolutionary solution is to get rid of them. That’s an interesting fact of biology and can be medically important. However, it’s important to note that it’s just one more example of devolution — the beneficial loss of genetic information. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 30, 2021
Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Comb jellies, among the oldest life forms, lost rather than gained complexity

Denyse O'Leary
August 30, 2021
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Throwing a horseshoe into the works of Darwinism, many life forms simply reduce their complexity in order to survive. Yes, natural selection works and is real but — because it depends on randomness — it doesn’t produce reliably complexity all by itself any more than winning a lottery ticket reliably produces wealth. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 15, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Natural selection
Tagged
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At New Scientist: Ancient comb jelly more complex than its modern relatives?

Denyse O'Leary
August 15, 2021
Intelligent Design, Natural selection
Well, it’s a good thing for “evolutionary theory” that it doesn’t “preclude” life forms becoming “simpler over geological time.” That’s called devolution and it is in fact very common. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 21, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Grand Darwinian experiment with 10,000 generations of yeast proves that Mike Behe is right

Denyse O'Leary
March 21, 2021
Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design
If the authors could have predicted adaptation through loss-of-function mutations, why didn’t they let high school textbook authors and pop science presenters in on the secret?: Michael Behe is right: Darwin devolves. Evolution is mostly about devolution. Does that maybe make sense in a universe where entropy is growing? But where does it leave Darwin? At the bus stop after the last bus has left? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 18, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Some thoughts from a reader on Behe’s vindication at Lehigh

Denyse O'Leary
February 18, 2021
Intelligent Design
Remember, these same authors wrote a scathing review of Darwin Devolves in the journal Evolution. Now, somehow, they must hold their position of opposing Darwin Devolves, while presenting compelling evidence to support Darwin Devolves. Quite a conundrum! Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 18, 2021
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Behe vindicated (still not cited) at his own LeHigh University

Denyse O'Leary
February 18, 2021
Darwinism, Intelligent Design
One might ask: If things go downhill that way and “directionality and progress in evolution may be illusory,” what is the source of intelligent designs? An intelligence in or beyond nature? We’ll take either as an answer, to start a discussion. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 25, 2020
Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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An animal has been discovered that does not need oxygen to live

Denyse O'Leary
November 25, 2020
Evolution, Intelligent Design
Devolution, of which this is an example, may be more common than we suppose and will probably have precisely the effect of creating “exceptions” like this. Note that we are told, “they likely steal energy from their host using some type of proteins.” It makes sense that many devolved creatures are parasites. They can afford to throw away equipment if they are using the host’s toolbox anyway. Read More ›