“We humans have many vestigial features proving that we evolved,” argues Jerry A. Coyne, Ph.D. (pictured left), biology professor at the University of Chicago. Coyne is the author of the book Why Evolution is True. Vestiges are biological features thought to be evolution relics. Scientific evidence, however, is critical; are evolution vestiges fact, or fiction?
Aristotle (384–322 BC) originated the vestiges theory. Even though WIKIPEDIA considers the theory as “controversial and not without dispute,” the carte blanche use of vestiges continues as supporting evidence for the popular “evolution is true” argument.
Recent advances in biotechnology, however, are challenging the scientific validity of the evolution vestiges theory.
Dinosaurs found in unexpected places. In 1933, the Sinclair Oil Corporation sponsored an exhibit at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The Earth’s oil reserves, it was thought, formed during the era of the dinosaurs–the Mesozoic Era.
The exhibit was so popular, a silhouette of a green dinosaur, a Brontosaurus, became Sinclair’s official logo (pictured left). Gaining popularity a few decades later, at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, Sinclair introduced their expanded exhibit, called Dinoland, featuring life-size replicas of nine different dinosaurs, including their signature 27-foot tall and 70-foot long Brontosaurus. Admission was free.
Within just months of returning from a 5-year voyage on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin was quick to start working on a new theory in what he called his “notebooks.” The year was 1837. Etched in a leathery notebook with the letter “B” on the cover, now known as Notebook B, with Darwin’s tree diagram.
Starting with “1” at the tree trunk, the twigs and branches represent relationships between species, like a family tree. Species were indicated with sequential letters; simple enough.
Scientists, however, have become increasingly skeptical of Darwin’s tree metaphor to explain how biology works. “Evolution is trickier, far more intricate, than we had realized,” David Quammen explains in his new book entitledThe Tangled Tree (2018). Somehow, Darwin’s tree got tangled. What happened?
The industry’s longest-running research experiment reached a milestone in October, studying the evolution of more than 68,000 generations.
Biologist Richard Lenski started the now legendary experiment in his laboratory early in 1988 with just 12 flasks seeded with genetically identical bacteria known as Escherichia coli (E. coli).
Since then, the bacteria have been growing in a carefully measured solution of glucose, a type of sugar—”food” for bacteria. Each flask contained just a sparse amount of glucose to create a stressful environment, along with a high concentration of citrate, a molecular close cousin of glucose, pushing the bacteria to evolve. Since 1988, Lenski’s laboratory team has transferred a small sample of the new 50 mL Erlenmeyer flasks every day.
The armored dinosaur fossil preserved in exquisite detail unearthed in a western Canadian oil sand mine highlights the new daunting challenges facing the theory of evolution.
This stunningly preserved fossil is shattering long-standing paradigms. “The more I look at it,” said Michael Greshko, science writer for National Geographic, “the more mind-boggling it becomes.”
Caleb Brown (picture-right), a paleobiologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, where the fossil was placed on exhibit in August, explained to Greshko,
“We don’t just have a skeleton… We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”
Darwin, Then and Now, the Most Amazing Story in the History of Science, chronicles Darwin's life, how he developed his hypothesis, specifically what he said, and what scientists have discovered since the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859.
The book traces the rise and fall of evolution's popularity as a scientifically valid theory. With over 1,000 references from Darwin and scientists, Darwin Then and Now retraces developments in the most amazing story in the history of science.
Darwin Then and Now is an educational resource focusing on understanding the intersection of evolution and science to develop basic skills for analyzing and assessing the theory of biological evolution.
“We humans have many vestigial features proving that we evolved,” argues Jerry A. Coyne, Ph.D. (pictured left), biology professor at the University of Chicago. Coyne is the author of the book Why Evolution is True. Vestiges are biological features thought to be evolution relics. Scientific evidence, however, is critical; are evolution vestiges fact, or fiction?
Dinosaurs found in unexpected places. In 1933, the 
