Pointy eggs and whales (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, August 28, 2018, 01:32 (2069 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Tony: If A then B programming. I don't know what the parameters are, but I would hazard a few guesses and say that perhaps certain dietary or environmental inputs (A) are the parameters that determine the output of the eggshape (B). I would also guess that when we find out what those inputs are, they will be ubiquitous between all pointy egg bird species.

David: It is not diet, etc. It takes a specially shaped cloaca to make pointed eggs.

Tony: I think you misunderstand. I was referring to the parameters that trigger the formation of pointed eggs. Let's assume for a moment that the information on how to make both round and pointy eggs were available (I am not at all certain it is), then the question would be 'how would the organism know which instructions to use?' Perhaps the trigger is environmental, i.e. diet, temperature, EM field, etc.

My point is that the egg has to have a specific and the calcium shell which forms is molded by a specific shape of the cloacal walls, which involves a genetic control different from most birds with rounded eggs. You are interested in what influenced the genetics to change, but the teleological view is the change had to satisfy a significant purpose, a cliff slope, so I think God sets in. I don't think your triggers fit the means of it happening..

DAvid Use of phenotype similarity is a holdover from pre-DNA days. The entire conversion line needs genetic studies and we'll be closer to some truth about the issue. Note this genetic study article that totally rearranges bacteria:

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-scientists-bacterial-tree-life.html

"Bacterial classification has been given a complete makeover by a team of University of Queensland researchers, using an evolutionary tree based on genome sequences.

"The study, led by Professor Philip Hugenholtz from UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics (ACE), relied on a technique called metagenomics, where bacterial genomes are obtained straight from environmental samples, to create a more complete picture of the structure of the bacterial kingdom."

"The research team then used these genomic blueprints to construct a giant evolutionary tree of bacteria based on 120 genes that are highly conserved across the bacterial domain."

Tony: Unfortunately, it starts with the same assumption of common descent.

I think the conserved genes are God's primary blueprint