And God created great whales,... Genesis 1:21
"Early northeast colonial settlers, William Bradford and Edward Winslow, in 1620 sent out a business prospectus: “Cape Cod was like to be a place of good fishing, for we saw daily great whales, of the best kind for oil and bone.” The American whaling industry
was just beginning. Two-hundred years later, New England was the premier whaling center in the world. .....the whaling industry was forced to hunt deeper into the ocean and eventually into the southern Atlantic, leaving the north Atlantic population decimated. Since fewer than 100 were known to exist by 1935, whaling was globally banned in 1937. While the population is estimated to have finally increased to 500 in 2013, a research team has uncovered that a genetic mutation is now forcing the whale population into extinction – a whale evolution nightmare.
In search for a biological explanation for the declining whale
population, a research team lead by Lorian E. Schweikert, cloned and sequenced the whale gene that codes for light-sensitive photoreceptive proteins known as opsins.
These proteins in the retina’s photoreceptor cells act to mediate the conversion of light into electrochemical signals – the first step in the visual transduction cascade.
As ScienceDaily explains, “the normal light-detecting proteins in cone photoreceptor cells are missing in these whales, demonstrating for the first time the complete loss of cone-based light detection in any mammal.”
In the article “Whales Extinction Reason: Blame Genetic Mutation,” Rodney Rafols explains the reason why –
Gene mutations were originally envisioned as the driving force of evolution. In a vacuum of scientific evidence, in 1937, American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky speculated on a tenet for a new theory of evolution –
An Introduction to Biology (1957), Gaylord Simpson, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, advanced further the speculation –
evolution is the process of mutation,” Douglas J. Futuyma argued in 1983. “Mutation is, ultimately, the source of new genetic variations, and without genetic variation, there cannot be genetic change. Mutation is therefore necessary for evolution.”
The theory seemed to explain Darwin’s largest unresolved problem — the origin of new variations to produce new species.
Mutations provided the evolution industry with a theoretical mechanism to account for the origin of new variations resulting in the formation of new species. Then came advanced science technologies – specifically, electron microscopy.
In his 1955 book “Evolution, Genetics and Man,” Dobzhansky finally conceded to the error of his earlier speculations –
Genetic mutations, once the savior from Darwin’s dilemma, have emerged as a biological nightmare for the evolution industry. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s online Genetics Home Reference Handbook, “Mutations have very serious effects, [and] they are incompatible with life.”
"Early northeast colonial settlers, William Bradford and Edward Winslow, in 1620 sent out a business prospectus: “Cape Cod was like to be a place of good fishing, for we saw daily great whales, of the best kind for oil and bone.” The American whaling industry
In search for a biological explanation for the declining whale
These proteins in the retina’s photoreceptor cells act to mediate the conversion of light into electrochemical signals – the first step in the visual transduction cascade.
As ScienceDaily explains, “the normal light-detecting proteins in cone photoreceptor cells are missing in these whales, demonstrating for the first time the complete loss of cone-based light detection in any mammal.”
In the article “Whales Extinction Reason: Blame Genetic Mutation,” Rodney Rafols explains the reason why –
“The light-detecting proteins in whale’s cone photoreceptor cells in the eyes are missing”
The net effect of mutations in a single gene is loss of vision. Gene mutations were originally envisioned as the driving force of evolution. In a vacuum of scientific evidence, in 1937, American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky speculated on a tenet for a new theory of evolution –
“Mutations and chromosomal changes … constantly and unremittingly supply the raw materials for evolution.”
Dobzhansky is credited with the legendary statement: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” A mosaic medallion of the statement now resides in the floor of the main hall of the Jordan Hall of Science, University of Notre Dame, a Catholic research university located adjacent to South Bend, Indiana.
An Introduction to Biology (1957), Gaylord Simpson, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, advanced further the speculation –
“Mutations are the ultimate raw materials for evolution.”
“By far the most important way in which chance influences The theory seemed to explain Darwin’s largest unresolved problem — the origin of new variations to produce new species.
Mutations provided the evolution industry with a theoretical mechanism to account for the origin of new variations resulting in the formation of new species. Then came advanced science technologies – specifically, electron microscopy.
In his 1955 book “Evolution, Genetics and Man,” Dobzhansky finally conceded to the error of his earlier speculations –
“Most mutants which arise in any organism are more or less disadvantageous to their possessors.”
With new scientific evidence from the new technologies, things began to look very different. In their 2002 book “Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species,” evolutionists Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, the son of Carl Sagan, explain –
“many ways to induce mutations are known but none leads to new organisms. Mutation accumulation does not lead to new species or even to new organs or new tissues … even professional evolutionary biologists are hard put to find mutations, experimentally induced or spontaneous, that lead in a positive way to evolutionary change.”
“One spur to research on mutations was the hope that an accumulation of these might lead to a new species,” opined Italian geneticist Giuseppe Sermonti. “But this never happened.”Genetic mutations, once the savior from Darwin’s dilemma, have emerged as a biological nightmare for the evolution industry. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s online Genetics Home Reference Handbook, “Mutations have very serious effects, [and] they are incompatible with life.”