4. The Geography of Life
- “The biogeographic evidence for evolution is now so powerful that I have never seen a creationist book, article, or lecture that has tried to refute it. Creationists simply pretend that the evidence doesn’t exist.”
- Explanation of distributions of plants and animals across the globe
- Continental drift
- Common ancestors were separated and evolved independently
- Convergent evolution
Species in similar environments will experience similar selection pressure and may evolve similar trarts. - “No creationist, whether of the Noah’s Ark variety or otherwise, has offered a credible explanation for why different types of animals have similar forms in different places. All they can do is invoke the inscrutable whims of the creator.”
- Islands
- Continental vs oceanic
Continental islands were once joined to mainland.- Very old continental islands have somewhat imbalanced flora and fauna
- NZ, Madagascar
- Very old continental islands have somewhat imbalanced flora and fauna
- Oceanic
- Oceanic islands have missing groups: mammals, amphibians, freshwater fish.
- Species that exist can colonise through long-distance dispersion
- Many similar species:radiation
- Empty habitats
- Galápagos finches
- “And there’s even a “vampire finch” that pecks wounds on the rear ends of seabirds and then laps up the blood.”
- Species are mostly similar to those on nearest mainland
- Continental vs oceanic
- Molecular taxonomy
- Continental drift
[…] The variety of life is explained by the Theory of Evolution; the evidence for which is overwhelming. […]