Abstract:

A staggering number of Americans, and people around the world, do not know that there is sufficient evidence for evolution (Newport, F. 2009). There are a number of evidences for biological evolution, also known as, descent with modification.


Introduction:

Understanding evolution is pivotal to the understanding of basic biological science. Without this understanding it is almost impossible to understand why organisms come into being and behave the way they do. Evolution explains how species resist pesticides, how pathogens invade their host and how they overcome predation. Evolution is also critical in developing new ways to treat disease and predicting ways to help stop resistance to antibiotics. A common example of this resistance are super-germs being created from continuous use of anti-bacterial soaps. Evolution predicts that germs can evolve into more dangerous organisms as a result of continued use of anti-bacterial soaps, but it also predicts that minimizing the use of anti-bacterial soaps will lessen the creation of new super-germs (Levy, S. 2000).

Teaching students germ resistance to antibiotics is a common scientific example of the efficacy of evolutionary theory. However, our public schools continue to be a target for anti-evolutionists, that wish to push alternate ideas about man and animal origins. Many of these alternate theories do not recognize the growing body of evidence in support of evolutionary theory. The evidence presented will hopefully provide a rebuttal to those that wish to undermine good biological science education.

All of the evidence for evolution is multitudinous and can in no way be listed in a single paper. However, the six strong evidences for evolution that follow should suffice to counter the many voices that doubt the veracity of evolutionary theory. These evidences will be distinct from each other in some ways but they are all connected to each other via DNA . The genetic evidence that follows will consist of: Pseudogene Homology, The Vitamin C Broken Gene, Endogenous Retroviruses, Teeth Gene Expression, Missing Chromosomes, and The Phylogenetic Tree.

In trying to understand the evidence, it is imperative that there is an understanding of what genes are and their function. Genes are sections of DNA that are transcribed to perform a specific function. Making copies of themselves are part of their normal function. Alfred Sturtevant, a geneticist, was the first to discover these new duplications in 1925 while working with fruit flies. He discovered that some of the offspring had an extra copy of a gene (Sturtevant, 1925). Since Sturtevant, other scientists have observed new gene duplications in many different species, including humans (Fairbanks, 2007). These new duplications or new copies are imperfect. In fact, they are mutations of the original gene. Once a mutation occurs, genes rarely are able to perform the same original function. Continued mutations, however, allow this new gene to possibly perform different functions.


Pseudogene Homology (Similarities in copied genes)

Finding the same gene duplications among homologous species lends some evidence for evolution (Fairbanks, 2007). These gene duplications are passed on from parent to offspring. A pseudogene is a copy of a gene. Humans and chimps share many pseudogenes. As pseudogenes are copies of genes, it is difficult to explain how the exact same pseudogenes could end up in different animal species; that is, without evolutionary theory. Evolution predicts that there should be very similar sections of genetic code among similar looking creatures, and there is.

One of the more well understood pseudogenes are the hemoglobin pseudogenes. Hemoglobin pseudogenes are copies of working hemoglobin genes, which are responsible for transporting oxygen in the red blood cell. There are a number of hemoglobin genes that function at various times during human development. In many places in the DNA, there are inactive pseudogenes that sit right next to their parent hemoglobin genes. These groupings are called clusters. In the case of hemoglobin, these clusters are called the beta and alpha clusters. Within the beta cluster is a pseudogene of its parent hemoglobin gene, and it is filled with mutations. It is called the psi-beta pseudogene, and over 30% of its DNA has mutated compared to the parent hemoglobin gene (Chang & Slightom, 1984). All great apes have the exact same psi-beta pseudogene in the exact same place. New World monkeys, however, have the same psi-beta pseudogene, but lack an extra one that humans have. This reveals to us a deviation on a separate branch of evolution where somehow, after the great-ape split, New World monkeys lost their extra set (Chang & Slightom, 1984).


The Vitamin C Gene. (The GULO UnitaryPseudogene)

A unitary pseudogene is a gene that has lost its ability to perform any tasks at all. A unitary pseudogene is the only one of its type found in the entire genome. This gene corresponds to what many of us have heard as vestigial organs. For example, a mole in Australia known as the Marsupial mole has lost its ability to use its eyes. The gene that codes for connecting nerves from the eyes to the brain is gone; therefore, the mole is blind (Springer et al., 1997). It has no need for eyes at all, yet has them anyway as vestiges of its evolutionary past. If there is an identical pseudogene discovered in another mole-like species in the region, there is a good chance that these animals are related. They likely share a common ancestor.

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