Sunday, November 26, 2017

Interesting evidence for evolution: Immortal genes

I like to look things up: "The dust jacket of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outercover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers."

A few years ago I read "The Making of the Fittest, DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll.

He wrote several pages about immortal genes. I was just looking at the dust jacket which had a few words about these genes:

"Though the DNA record has resoundingly confirmed Darwin's main principles, several major surprises have been revealed."

"The first surprise is that there is a set of 'immortal' genes in the DNA of nearly every creature, from bacteria to whales. These genes first emerged three billion years ago and have survived the constant onslaught of mutations that would have erased them eons ago, were it not for natural selection."

The idea if a creature (including human apes) had a mutation that changed or disabled one of these genes, that creature would not survive and not reproduce. The mutation would not exist anymore.

Obviously this is powerful evidence for the idea all species share an ancestor.

He also wrote about fossil genes. I suggest read the book or just look it up.

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