Examples of Evidence
Molecular Biologist:
1. Evolution reproduced in the lab or documented in nature:
a.
Two strains of fruit flies lost the ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring in the lab
over a 4-year span ... i.e. they became two new species. (Easily repeated experiment.)
b. A new plant species (a type of firewood), created by a doubling of the chromosome count from
the original stock (Mosquin, 1967)
c. Multiple species of the house mouse unique to the Faeroe Islands occurred within 250 years of
introduction of a foundation species on the island.
d. Formation of 5 new species of cichlid fishes that have formed in a single lake within 4,000
years of introduction of a parent species.
2. Genetic evidence –
a. Humans have a huge number of genes (as much as 96%) in common with other great apes and
(as much as 50%) with wheat plants.
b. The pattern of genetic evidence follows the tell-tale patterns of ancestral relationships (more
genes in common between recently related species, and fading the further back in time).
3. Molecular evidence –
a. Commonalities in DNA (which is separate from genetic commonalities)
b. Much of our DNA does not code for genes at all.
c. Random mutations (basically 'typos') enter into DNA at a known rate over the centuries. This is
called the 'molecular clock' and again gives excellent evidence of when humans diverged from
other apes (about 6 million years ago, according to this molecular clock), and this corresponds
perfectly with when these fossils first appear in the fossil record (using radiometric dating).\
4. Bacteriology, virology, immunology, pest-control –
a. Bacteria evolve in response to antibiotics (we can compare strains of tuberculosis today, with
samples of older epidemics and can see the specific structures)
b. Viruses (like HIV) respond to antivirals
c. Insects evolving in response to pesticides
Paleontologist:
1. Fossil evidence –
a. The way fossils appear in the layers of rock always corresponds to relative development ...
more primitive creatures in lower (older) layers.
b. Absolute dating of fossils using radiometry.
c. Constant discovery of new transitional forms. E.g. reptile-birds, reptile-mammals, legged
whales, legged sea cows.
2. Biogeography –
a. The current and past distribution of species on the planet (almost all marsupials and almost no
placental mammals are native to Australia) which is the result of speciation in a geographically
isolated area.
Anatomists:
1. Vestigial and atavistic organs –
a. Leg and pelvic bones in whales, dolphins, and some snakes
b. Unused eyes in blind cave fish, unused wings in flightless birds and insects; flowers in nonfertilizing plants (like dandelions)
c. Humans wisdom teeth, tailbones, appendix, the plantaris muscle in the calf (useless in humans,
used for grasping with the feet in primates).
2.
Embryology –
a. Legs on dolphin embryos
b. Tails and gill folds on human embryos
c. Snake embryos with legs
d. Marsupial eggshell and carnuncle.
3.
Homology –
a. The same bones in the same relative positions in primate hands, bat wings, bird wings,
mammals, whale and penguin flippers, pterosaur wings, horse legs, the forelimbs of moles, and
webbed amphibian legs.
4. Evidence from proteins –
a. Blood proteins (the things that give us our A, B, O blood typing and the Rh factor (the
plus/minus thing) which incidentally stands for 'rhesus monkey')
b. The structure of the insulin molecule
c. The proteins responsible for color vision. The specific proteins found in human color vision are
exactly the same as those found in Old World primates (the great apes and the monkeys found
in Africa and Asia). These proteins are absent in New World primates (the Central and South
American monkeys), and from all other mammals. In fact among the New World primates, only
the howler monkey has color vision ... but these use slightly *different* proteins, coded on
different locations and chromosomes, than humans and the OW primates. This is yet more
evidence of a closer link between humans and the OW primates.