Evolution: more gaps in foraminifera (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, October 27, 2018, 09:38 (2001 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: If other primates stayed in the trees and survive happily to this day, it is very difficult to see why a few dropped to the ground and they had to invent, or be helped by God, the complexities that are human beings. I obviously view the whole process totally differently than you.

dhw: We are theorizing. There must have been a beginning. It is perfectly possible that in one location, the primates could not stay in the trees, whereas in other locations they could. So you have one group of primates forced to develop a new way of life, while the rest carry on as before. Just as some land-dwelling organisms took up marine life, and some sea-dwelling organisms took up land life, always depending on local conditions. Why do you find this less logical than your God preparing one group of primates/land-dwelling/sea-dwelling organisms for life in conditions that don’t yet exist? (See "big brain birth canal" for more details.)

DAVID: As usual you are blithely ignoring the complex design changes in phenotype that are required, as the animal leaves land, and miraculously grows fins. Or drops out of the trees and is suddenly bipedal. Actually Lucy was both tree and ground capable, a true transition form, but even at that her differences from apes is enormous. the usual gap that requires design and a designer.

I am not blithely ignoring anything. You asked why some primates descended and others didn’t. I have offered you an explanation which you have completely ignored, preferring to confine the discussion to complex design changes. Nobody can explain the complex changes that lead to speciation, and so we theorize. The fact that we have found transitional forms is evidence for common descent.