Evidence for Evolution

Evidence for Evolution

Original Uploader's Notes:

I've gotten tired of explaining why Intelligent Design and Creationism are wrong, why they are not supported by the data, how their supporters misrepresent facts or lie, and why they are not science. So now I've decided to show evidence for evolution. In this simple experiment I analyze codon usage in the alpha and beta chains of hemoglobin. The theory of evolution makes a simple prediction: codons not subject to bias should be preserved in closely related species even though there is no selective pressure to do so. ID and creationism make no predictions about this data. God, the designer, could have kept the codons the same or could have switched them. ID and creationism are indifferent since we cannot know the reasoning of god, and that is why they are not testable.

The argument presented here is not circular. I define human, chimp, and rhesus monkey as closely related based on a wealth of other data (they were believed to be close relatives before we even understood what DNA was).

Finally, what I don't show in the video is that the codon usage for glutamic acid in these proteins in chicken (a very distant relative of primates) is not preserved. 3 of the 9 conserved glutamic acid residues use different codons compared with primates. This has a probability of roughly 25%. Telling us that given enough time random mutations will cause non-functional regions of DNA to diverge.

In the end, this data supports evolution because the theory made a prediction and the data confirms that prediction. Plain and simple.

DNA sequences from completed genomes are available online for everyone to play with. So go ahead. Look at it for yourself.

If you run the numbers with the assumption that ERVs can only insert in 1% of the genome, i.e. highly nonrandom, you still get enormously low probabilities with only 16 ERVs. So even if insertion is highly nonrandom, getting the thousands of matched ERVs between all primates is unbelievably unlikely just like I show in the video (don't believe me, do the math).

Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs) are the relics of ancient viral infections preserved in our DNA. The odd thing is many ERVs are located in exactly the same position on our genome and the chimpanzee genome. There are two explanations for the perfectly matched ERV locations. Either it is an unbelievable coincidence that viruses just by chance inserted in exactly the same location in our genomes, or humans and chimps share a common ancestor. It was our common ancestor that was infected, and we both inherited the ERVs. ERVs providence the closest thing to a mathematical proof for evolution. And remember, ERVs are just one of the millions of FACTS that support the theory of evolution. Think about it.

ERV positions taken from:

C. M. Romano, R. F. Ramalho, and P. M. de A. Zanotto; Tempo and mode of ERV-K evolution in human and chimpanzee genomes. Arch Virol (2006) 151: 22152228

Probabilities calculates using random insertion into a genome containing 3 billion bases. Yes, some ERVs have shown to not insert perfectly randomly, but none show perfect site selection. Accounting for non-random insertion would NOT reduce the probabilities much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX_WH1bq5HQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA_UFImmulY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxLR9hdorI