![]() ![]() As Darwin predicted, modern evolutionists agree that the fish could not have inherited their electric genes from a common ancestor. Then there are the similarities between the genes themselves. Maler points out, adding, “They’ve raised the problem beautifully in this paper.” Staggering odds “You have to simultaneously co-evolve genes that do very many different things in some kind of directed manner,” Dr. A muscle that does not contract, for instance, is pretty worthless. ![]() Responding to the study in an NPR news story, Leonard Maler, who conducts research on electric fish at the University of Ottawa, explains that none of the changes necessary to become an electric fish would be beneficial on its own. This complexity, noted by Darwin, remains a challenge to evolutionary biologists today. Moreover, an electric fish must be able to withstand the electrical discharge, perhaps by keeping its vital organs partially insulated from shock or by being large enough that a much greater current would be necessary to damage it.Įlectric fish are indeed amazing creations, but our admiration properly belongs to the God who made them. All the electrocytes must be working correctly in tandem. It must have a different distribution of ion pumps to produce a much higher voltage. However, an electrocyte must be bigger than a muscle cell. Both create a difference in charge by pumping positively charged ions across the cell membrane to create an electrical gradient. #BIBLE DISCOVERY STUNS SERIES#The complexity of electrocytesĪll electric organs are made of millions of cells called electrocytes, stacked in series like batteries in a flashlight and all firing at the same time.Įlectrocytes are similar to muscle cells. More than a weapon, electric fields are a kind of second sight for all six groups of electric fish, as sound is for dolphins and bats.Īnd yet it’s hard to believe each fish’s electric organs could have evolved independently when they have so much in common. Indeed, most of these fish are nocturnal and live in murky environments. In other words, Darwin proposed that similar environments and needs could independently produce features that appear similar and fill similar roles without having a shared history (like a moth’s wing and a bird’s wing). In response to these obstacles, he proposed the idea of analogous structures: “I am inclined to believe that in nearly the same way as two men have sometimes independently hit on the very same invention, so natural selection, working for the good of each being and taking advantage of analogous variations has sometimes modified in very nearly the same manner two parts in two organic beings, which owe but little of their structure in common to inheritance from the same ancestor” (p. First, he was not sure if an electrical organ could evolve through a series of small steps and second, he recognized that all the varieties of fish with electric organs could not have inherited them from a common ancestor. Benjamin Franklin probed them to understand electricity, and Victorians used them as a titillating party game, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Ĭharles Darwin himself, in his book On the Origin of Species, identified electric fish as posing two potentially major obstacles to his theory. Ancient Egyptians pressed them on epileptics as shock therapy. The eel and other electric fish have fascinated humans for millennia. Sussman describes a six-foot electric eel as “in essence a frog with a built-in five-and-a-half-foot cattle prod.” Electric fish and evolution In a University of Wisconsin news report, Dr. A top predator in the Amazon River, almost 90 percent of this fish is electric organ. ![]() The team, led by Michael Sussman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harold Zakon of the University of Texas at Austin and Manoj Samanta of the Systemix Institute in Redmond, Washington, identified the genes behind the electric organs that give six different groups of fish high voltage to catch their food, defend against predators, navigate their habitats and communicate with mates.Īs part of their research, the group sequenced the genome of the South American eel. In order to account for all types of electric fish through evolutionary theory, the same intricate organ would have needed to evolve at least six separate times, according to a study published June 27 in the journal Science. JChallenging evolutionary assumptions, a new study reveals that the same set of genes powers electric fish the world over-despite their different ancestry. ![]()
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