Ring species -- the abridged version

Several people asked me to make a video on ring species alone, suitable for viewing by their creationist friends. So here it is.

I've used the example of the greenish warbler, after someone pointed out that the ensatina is not the best example of a ring species. Hybrids of the two end-species in the ensatina ring exist in two locations, whereas there are no hybrids from the two end-species descended from the greenish warbler.

The gap you will see in the orange-colored area covering the obscuratus on the map of Asia (at around 3:00 mins) is caused by human habitation which has eliminated the obscuratus from that particular area.

SOURCES:

"Speciation in the round"
David B. Wake, Nature, 18 Jan 2001

"Phylogeographic breaks without geographic barriers to gene flow"
Darren E. Irwin, Evolution, 2002

"Ring species as bridges between microevolution and speciation"
D .Irwin et al, Genetica, 2001

• Category

  Science & Technology

[liam atkinson]

thanks for your reply,as i always point out to the quote miners"the internet still works" how about this little gem, theodosius dobzhansky qoute "nothing makes sense in light of evolution"wtf, perhaps they are thinking aloud,i had part of "kitzmiller vs dover" court transcript posted to me,it had suffered a most brutal creationists mangling,i think they have a machine like the "krell" that is capable of turning any truth no matter how elegant and proven into "god turds" peace to you,squire.

[liam atkinson]

thanks for your reply,as i always point out to the quote miners"the internet still works" how about this little gem, theodosius dobzhansky qoute "nothing makes sense in light of evolution"wtf, perhaps they are thinking aloud,i had part of "kitzmiller vs dover" court transcript posted to me,it had suffered a most brutal creationists mangling,i think they have a machine like the "krell" that is capable of turning any truth no matter how elegant and proven into "god turds" peace to you,squire.

[liam atkinson]

i heard about the "faster than light neutrinos" provisional result,i felt sick,the implications for the standard model of physics would be devastating,then a physicist pointed out that this result if true,would lead to faster than light space exploration,i felt relief,science is not religion,but i feel a great connection to other people who understand it and take time to learn about it,i am a builder by trade,iv'e spent 25 years learning about atoms,yet,i will never see this mini god of mine.

[liam atkinson]

i love the thought that a god is allowed for in science,the quantum mechanical probabilistic one,any god proposed is a finite concept in an infinite universe,i went to sunday school until i was 12,i believed in god,but my questions were not answered truthfully,once i smelt a rat,i knew something was up,my first year chemistry class(about the half-life of uranium)sealed the deal,there may be some god,but we don't know it/him/she YET,POSSIBLY ! many thanks for your reply,peace to you and yours.

[crocdoc2]

Weird, I thought I'd responded to this and my comment seems to have disappeared.

It was a comment on quote mining, which they love above all else.

[crocdoc2]

They do love to quote mine, don't they! They'll scan through a document and pick out things they think supports their view, ignoring the rest. Like Darwin's comment on the apparent impossibility of the evolution of the eye (right before he provides the answer, the bit they never include).

Can't blame them, I guess. Imagine how hard it would be to maintain bronze age beliefs in the modern, information rich era.

[joecane6340]

That's their way. The "God of the Gaps". They never present any hard evidence because they think that somehow creation is the default explanation. All they can do is say "Science doesn't know, therefor God".

[liam atkinson]

good comment,did you know you were wrong and evangelized anyway ? because i actually went through a page on ring species,with a creationist,word for word,their ability to twist the meaning of a words was almost madness,there were perfectly reasonable reservations regarding the conclusions,this was the only sentence they was interested in discussing,they just repeated it says "they don't know" it says "they don't know" it actually said "scientists are still researching this" huh !

[liam atkinson]

hey hey,i went to sunday school until i was 12,i knew my questions were being avoided,i was ushered out of class and given some b-llshit important job to do,they actually said in class that i had learning disability(dyslexia)so i did not think in the right way ! my dad who is 77 is quite happy to eventually return to energy,from whence we came,quantum energy not godly energy,he said he feels happier knowing that atoms is whats its about,a far more interesting proposition than magical claims.

[liam atkinson]

yes indeed squire ! the fact that the faithful believe that if the theory of evolution falls then religion will triumph,proves they have no understanding of science,a "spectrograph" lays waste to their claim,stars make elements not gods,if the spectrograph was the last piece of scientific equipment left on earth,the one person who knew how to use it could argue with every person in the world,that elements are made in stars,just before he was put to death,for blasphemy :-(