One of the most often repeated and idiotic comment on evolution is that there hasn't been time enough for it to happen.
Well, there was. And there's a good paper on it here.
However, it's a fee site.
Jerry Coyne has a very good analysis of it here. He also discusses speciation here and here.
Other discussions here, here, here and here.
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Just found the paper online:
ReplyDeletehttp://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1010/1010.5178v1.pdf
Just read the paper and it's very interesting. I heartily suggest that creationists capable of understanding more than trivial math read it.
ReplyDeleteThe takeaway is that since the entire genome is on trial every generation, all of the favorable and unfavorable mutations in an individual are tested at once. Given that, it only takes a few iterations for a positive gene to win out.
The paper presumes that all genes are the same for purposes of the model. We, in fact, know this not to be true. Some genes have immediate effects. Some genes run other genes. Some genes are never expressed at all in the current generation.
This complexifies the matter. For some genes it would shorten the time it takes to get fixed in a population. In some it would lengthen that time. Some genetic combinations are so lethal the individual never matures and so that mutation is never expressed in the population at all.
Regardless, there's plenty of time for evolution.