When amoebas evolve: Myths of creationism.

AuthorBailey, Ronald
PositionCitings - Brief article

A PAPER IN the January/February Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology dispels "the myths of intelligent design" by examining the evolution of amoebas and other unicellular organisms.

Proponents of intelligent design claim the Cambrian explosion of 545 million years ago, when the body plans of the ancestors of most animals developed, occurred too rapidly be explained by the gradual process of Darwinian evolution. Biologists Mark Farmer and Andrea Habura point out in their paper that unicellular protistan evolution lasted 1 billion years, providing the genomic diversity from which multicellular organisms arose during that remarkably fertile period.

Evolution skeptics also claim that no one has ever seen the development of a new species, a myth Farmer and Habura tackle by outlining a case in which amoebae became symbiotically dependent upon infecting bacteria. The symbiotically dependent amoebas developed into an undeniably separate species, because attempts to interbreed with the parent stock would infect and kill them.

...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT