The Evolution Revolution: Why Thinking People are Rethinking the Theory of Evolution by Lee Spetner

Author:Lee Spetner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: The Judaica Press, Inc.
Published: 2014-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Whales, dolphins, and bats are the only mammals that have echolocation systems. These systems enable the animal to “see” by means of sound waves, as in naval sonar systems. The animal transmits sound signals and locates objects in its environment by analyzing the return signal or echo. To “see” with the echolocation system, the animal must transmit strong sound signals and be able to detect weak reflections from objects in its surroundings. The animal’s brain must be wired to interpret these signals much as our brains interpret the visual inputs from our eyes. On the basis of gross anatomy, the whales and dolphins are classified closer to the cow and other ruminants than to the bats. But on the basis of their echolocation systems, they should belong with the bats. Liu et al. (2010) have stated, “The ability of some bats and all toothed whales to produce sonar pulses and process the returning echoes for prey detection and orientation (echolocation) is a spectacular example of phenotypic convergence in mammals.” Not only that, but a molecular analysis of the protein prestin puts whales and dolphins squarely with the bats. Prestin is a sound-sensitive protein that is essential for hearing in general, and in particular it is part of the hearing mechanism of the echolocation system. The prestin molecules in whales and dolphins have fourteen amino acids that are not in the prestin molecule of any other mammals except for the bats, whose prestin protein also has those same fourteen amino acids (Liu et al. 2010). This is strong evidence that the phylogenetic tree does not represent objective reality and should cast a pall over Common Descent. But Darwinists rescue Common Descent by declaring that the prestin protein and the entire echolocation systems in whales, dolphins, and bats are the results of convergent evolution. But, as I have pointed out above, they have never shown that convergent evolution is anything more than their lollapalooza.

Even among the bats alone, convergence had to be invoked. Both the mustached bat and the horseshoe bat have an echolocation system and are thought to have developed them independently. Neuweiler (2003), apparently trying to rescue Common Descent, called this one of the most striking examples of convergent evolution.

Both insects and mammals detect chemical cues in the environment through odor receptors on the surfaces of cells in the olfactory sensory epithelium. The olfactory systems of both insects and mammals contain a large number of odor-ant-receptor genes — about 60 in Drosophila and about 1,000 in mice (Thorne et al. 2004). These receptors, in combination, enable the animals to discriminate among hundreds of thousands of different odors (Buck and Axel 1991). The brain receives the combined neurological signals from these cells and interprets the corresponding odor.

The taste cells in the tongue of both insects and mammals are dedicated to the same individual basic taste sensations (sweet, bitter, etc.) and they have about the same number of taste receptors (Thorne et al. 2004). The strong similarities between the olfactory and taste

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