Cambrian Explosion; the Gap (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, November 25, 2011, 15:47 (4747 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: How did it happen? The huge gap, over 220 million years of very little new development. So let Darwinists invent a new theory. Give the lack of progress a new name and wa-la, the gap is all explained away. Darwin twisted thinking at its best:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6059/1091.abstract

or at its worst.

One has to subscribe to get the full article, but the summary contains the following: “We argue that this diversification involved new forms of developmental regulation, as well as innovations in networks of ecological interaction within the context of permissive environmental circumstances.” ‘Permissive’ sounds pretty licentious to me! I don’t know why the authors distinguish between ecological and environmental, but isn’t this yet another indication that epigenetics may be the key mechanism for evolution – interaction between organisms and their environment leading to innovation and hence diversification?

Of course I don’t know what the rest of the article says, but if this is the general gist, Darwinists don’t need to invent a new theory – they only need to jettison gradualism, and I think many already have.

Thank you, David, for a wide range of interesting articles - too numerous to comment on individually.