Quote:
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Philboid Studge wrote
Dear Prof Meyers (sic),
If the recent discovery of DNA transfer between parasites and insects really "challenges the prevailing view of animal evolution, in which genetic information is passed exclusively from parents to offspring", then do the Creationists win?
Also: calamari or baby octopus?
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Premise fails. Horizontal transfer has been known for years -- and the human genome project has revealed a significant percentage of your DNA is viral in origin. All that is is another mechanism for introducing genetic novelties and variation, and is perfectly compatible with traditional evolutionary theory.
The creationists win nothing. It's not as if they announced that a prediction of
their theory, which is theirs, was that their magic man was squirtin' genes from one animal to another. Horizontal transfer is an observation from
real science.
Why not both calamari and baby octopus?