Creation Moment 12/21/2012 - Gorilla DNA Throws Monkey wrench into Evolutionary Theory

"As we expected, comparison of gorilla DNA with human DNA produced results that were unexpected by evolutionists because they aren’t consistent with what the theory of evolution predicted. This “allows a fresh assessment of the evolutionary mechanisms,” which is a polite way of saying that they have to go back to Square One.

The first problem evolutionists have to face is the fact that analysis of different genes result in different phylogenetic (that is, family) trees.

The standard view of the primate evolutionary tree is that chimpanzees and humans share a more recent common ancestor with each other than either shares with gorillas. Accordingly, the most closely related sequence for any human gene should be found in the chimpanzee. However, Scally and colleagues' demonstrate that, although this is true for most genes, large fractions of the ape genomes contradict this simple pattern. … This process, which leads to conflicting evolutionary trees for different genes, is called incomplete lineage sorting

In other words, evolutionists believe that the (unknown) ancestor of modern gorillas split from the (unknown) common ancestor that begat chimpanzees and humans. Therefore, human DNA should be closer to chimp DNA than gorilla DNA. If you use DNA similarities to construct an evolutionary tree, humans and chimps should be more closely related than humans and gorillas. It should not matter what part of the DNA molecule you analyze. The problem (for evolutionists) is that you get different evolutionary trees depending upon which part of the DNA you analyze. They found “large fractions of the ape genomes” in which humans are more closely related to gorillas than chimps.

This is such a common problem that Nature inserted a sidebar article titled, “How incongruities in phylogenetic trees can arise.” According to that sidebar,

Scally and colleagues found that in 30% of the western-lowland-gorilla genome, the DNA sequences are more similar to the corresponding sequences from the human or chimpanzee genomes than the sequences of these two species are to each other — although humans and chimpanzees are expected to have shared a more recent common ancestor with each other than either does with gorillas. Such inconsistencies between evolutionary relationships can result from various processes.

In that sidebar they said that the “various processes” that produce incorrect phylogenetic trees are “incomplete lineage sorting” and “gene flow.”

Since these two processes can produce erroneous results, how do you know which phylogenetic tree is correct? It’s simple. If it confirms your prejudice, it is right. If it contradicts your prejudice, it is wrong!

If the theory of evolution were true, that is, if people, chimps, and gorillas really did evolve from a common ancestor, then it would not matter which genes you analyzed. They would all produce the same phylogenetic (that is, evolutionary) trees. But if people, chimps, and gorillas did not evolve from a common ancestor, the differences in DNA would not be the result of genetic mutations over time. The difference would be due to differences in the way the creatures were designed. Certain parts of the DNA molecule would be more similar than others because certain physical features happened to share similar design philosophies." ScienceAgainstEvolution

For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

2 Chronicles 9:21