Originally posted by Apass
OK, take the human embryo. Why tissue differentiation takes place in the way it does?
It's due to influence of various hormonal and genetic factors.
Why in its early stages of development, the human embryo has a tail? Why
dolphin embryos have fingers?
Well... firstly stating that 'dolphins have fingers' and 'humans have tails' is somewhat of a stretch, as these are embryonic forms. Surely
you're not going to come back with a statement akin to 'ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.'
In any case, the human 'tail' develops into one of the most important bones with respect to human movement and upright posture, the coccyx. The
reason it sticks out in an embryo such as the one you show (what is it about 1 month?) is because the rest of lower body is as of yet undeveloped. So
it's part of the developmental process.
The 'fingers' or I suppose more technically phalanges, are part of the dolphins... flipper - though I am unsure if 'flipper' is technically
correct. They're not fingers, in that there's no apototic event to remove the skin between the fingers. They may vaguely resemble syndactylous
'fingers,' but are distinctly not fingers.
There certainly is some speculation that this homology is due to common descent, and this may very well be, in any case, common descent is perfectly
compatible with ID.
In the first creature it could have been. What is the case today? Who activates those swithes?
It's not a who... they're activated by a genetic program.
The triggering mechanisms for the plasticity of bone marrow-derived stem cells seemed to be an insufficient pool of stem cells intrinsic to
this tissue in concert with an increased demand for the production of new cells and changes in the microenvironment as a result of
tissue injury at the site
source
(bold mine)
You are of course aware that 'microenvironment' in this case refers to intraorganismal environment, IOW, inside the organism, and not in response to
external stimuli.
Take the sponges:
The simplest extant (currently living) multicellular organisms, sponges, consist of multiple specialized cellular types cooperating together for a
common goal
Though the different cell types create an organized, macroscopic multicellular structure—the visible sponge—they are not organized into true
interconnected tissues. This is illustrated by the fact that a sponge broken up in a blender will reaggregate from the suviving cells. If individually
separated, however, the particular cell types cannot survive alone
source
Ok, it's not exactly what I said, but it's close enough. If you do not want to make the connections, you're free to do that.
Yep sponges are pretty cool. I do have to admit that much. They are freaks, and posses many anomalies as far as animals are concerned. In fact, they
used to be classified as plants. In terms of bizarre unanimalike adaptations the sponges
- Except for sponges, animal cells are arranged into
tissues
- Sponges are assymetrical
- Many produce by budding, in fact
- They may produce sexually, or asexually.
- Sponges are often monoecious
- As you pointed out, sponges that are broken down to the level of their cells can reassemble.
Though your statement about the cells not being able to survive individually isn't entirely true. If it were the sponge wouldn't be able to bud, and
many sponges in fact reproduce via oviparous fertilization, necessitating the ability to survive away from the organism.
Sponges are classified as animals for a few reasons, multicellular structure, lack of photosynthetic pigments, ingestion of molecules, and 'shared
genes.' In higher animals the gene alleged to be shared controls the growth of eyes, brains and the central nervous system. Of these, only the
genetic evidence is currently considered conclusive evidence that sponges are animals, even in light of the many differences.
In my personal opinion, sponges are not likely to be ancestors of animals, and don't even belong in the same kingdom. However, I do understand I am
not in the majority here. But in any case, as I mentioned earlier, common descent doesn't stand in opposition to ID.
Another good example of adaptation/evolution taking place under our own eyes is the development of resistance to antibiotics
Widespread use of antibiotics is thought to have spurred evolutionarily adaptations that enable bacteria to survive these powerful drugs. Other
microbes such as viruses, fungi, and parasites have developed resistance as well. Antimicrobial resistance provides a survival benefit to microbes and
makes it harder to eliminate infections from the body
A key factor in the development of antibiotic resistance is the ability of infectious organisms to adapt quickly to new environmental conditions.
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that, compared with higher life forms, have small numbers of genes. Therefore, even a single random genetic
mutation can greatly affect their ability to cause disease. And because most microbes reproduce by dividing every few hours, bacteria can evolve
rapidly. A mutation that helps a microbe survive exposure to an antibiotic will quickly become dominant throughout the microbial population.
random link
edited to add:
How does ID explains that?
Antibiotic resistance isn't evidence of evolution. Antibiotic resistance was present in populations of bacteria prior to antibiotics even being
discovered. Antibiotics don't induce any change in an organism. Antibiotics kill off sensitive organisms, leaving resistant ones behind... that is
the resistant individuals were present in the population already. The use of antibiotics has merely changed the frequency of pre-existing alleles. The
organisms haven't changed, only the numbers of resistant strains relative to sensitive strains.
Antibiotic resistance genes are a necessary consequence of antibiotics; the organisms that produce antibiotics also, by necessity must produce
antibiotic resistance genes. Antibiotic resistance genes are generally shuffled freely between different types of bacteria via horizontal transmission
as well.
So antibiotic resistance isn't evidence for evolution in that it doesn't create anything new, it merely shuffles pre-existing genetic information
both within and between populations. Furthermore, much of this is done via horizontal gene transfer. There is no mechanism in place in multicellular
organisms where genetic information can be transferred horizontally. So even if horizontal gene transfer was evidence for evolution, it couldn't be
applied to multicellular organisms.
ID explains antibiotic resistance exactly as it should: Intraspecies variation.
[crocodiles] Sex is also determined by nest temperature - males are produced around 31.6° Celsius. Any deviation from that temperature will result in
a female hatchling.
random link
Amazing, isn't it? Though it's not limited to crocodiles... as I understand it, many reptiles are subject to this particular method of sex
selection. In any case, not sure that this makes your case as well as you think. This innovation occurs after the process of tissue differentiation
has more or less occured. While it's true that the gonad tissue isn't mature, it has distinctly differentiated itself to gonad tissue. What remains
is development into either sex, but the gonad tissue is no longer pluripotent. IOW gonad tissue is differentiated.
[edit on 15-9-2006 by mattison0922]