Evolution of Diversity (was The limitations of science) (The limitations of science)

by David Turell , Friday, July 30, 2010, 02:45 (5013 days ago) @ George Jelliss

dhw ... sees no way chance can create the diversity of life ...
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> Try this:
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> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100726222316.htm
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> Segmentation is the secret behind the extraordinary diversification of animals.
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> "The researchers found that the genes controlling segment formation during embryo development are almost the same in drosophila (an arthropod) and in annelid marine worms, on which they concentrated their studies. These similarities led them to conclude that the genes had been inherited from a common ancestor, which was itself segmented. It also appears that vertebrates inherited this characteristic from an ancestor they share with the arthopods and the annelids. This is what the researchers are now seeking to confirm.
> This work supports the idea that segmentation only appeared once in the history of evolution and that it led to the broad diversity of animal groups possessing it."-Segmentation appears among the fossils of the Cambrian Explosion. Those fossils have no precursors in the fossil record, however, and so far is a giant jump, not a gradual change in evolution. The segmentation pattern is very useful to create diversity, but the Cambrian fossils were very diverse to begin with, with segmentation appearing in several of the original organisms of the original 50 species of which 37 remain. I guess the authors should review their thoughts to some degree. It is a chicken and egg problem. Was there segmentation before the Cambrian? No. So we see several segmentations appearing separately in a 5-10 million year period. Did chance create all this in a short period, or could there be another reason? I wonder.