Re: Rapid Lizard Evolution

In article
<e41f772a-9b3b-4e1e-8a26-a4b610838868@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> SkyEyes
<skyeyes9@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> On May 2, 5:05=A0am, "IlBeBa...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <IlBeBa...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > On May 1, 4:49=A0pm, Budikka666 <budik...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > Grrl Scientist
atwww.scienceblogs.com/grrlscientisthttp://tinyurl.com/5l=
> a6lh
> > > re****ts on: "five male and five female Italian wall lizards,
Podarcis
> > > sicula, were translocated from the islet of Pod Kopiste to the
nearby
> > > islet of Pod Mrcaru, both of which belong to Croatia and are located
> > > in the southern Adriatic Sea"
> >
> > > War erupted and scientists never got back to see the lizards until
> > > relatively recently. =A0What they found was an amazing example of
just
> > > how fast evolution can work its wiley ways.
> >
> > > Footnote to idiot creationists: Yeah, they're still lizards, and no,
> > > no scientist has ever claimed they're not. =A0But what you're too
stupid=
> 
> > > to grasp no matter how many times you're hit over your stupid heads
> > > with it, evolution isn't just about speciation (which leads to
> > > everything else) and nothing more. =A0Evolution is about change
within a=
> ase
> > > gene pool. =A0That's what it's rooted in and that's how it works
itsion
> > > magic.
> >
> > > It really is that simple. =A0And if you cannot grasp this basic,
> > > demonstrated fact, then you too are really simple.
> >
> > > Budikka
> >
> > REPLY: =A0By what mechanism or evolutionary process does new
information
> > become a part of the genome (which is needed for Darwinnian Evolution
> > to be viable)?
> 
> It needn't necessarily be "new" information - changes can and do
> result from genes and whole sequences of genes being switched on and
> off.  See the new science of "epigenetics."


That's so true, and it seems to get a bit more true every week.

The indispensible Sean B. Carrol (did you watch the extra material?)
points out in an article in the current Scientific American that
*loss* of features is a very im****tant evolutionary mechanism.
(a hairy dolphin with arms wouldn't do so well).  Most genes seem to
have multiple switches -- which means that mutation in one switch allows 
features to be lost without altaration of basic coding gene it switched.

Which is im****tant, since most genes are pleiotropic -- the do different
things in different tissues, organs, or cells.  With switches, you 
can discard one function of the gene without losing all the others.

Still, it's fair for "I'll Be' to ask where those coding genes came from
in the 
first place -- at one time they were new information.  I pointed out one
mechanism: genetic stuttering, followed by mutation.

(and of course I'm still rooting for Margulis' idea of wholesale genetic
capture, but who knows...)

-- cary