Review: Why Evolution Is True

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
    • 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
  • Molecular taxonomy

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10