I'm not being pedantic, I'm asking for scientific proof that a species can morph into another. It's a key point in the THEORY Of Evolution. If the proof exists, I'm sure one of you can find it on google.
"This constitutes a possible example of an early step towards the emergence of a new species" As with the examples on the Speciation link, we have never observed one species change into another. The timescales are far to long for that to be possible. I believe it happens but that is just as much a leap of faith as the creationists maintaining that god made all those species.
Not at all. We can actually measure the changes scientifically, such as beak size and shape in birds (Darwin's finches) or food selection in insects (apple maggot). This isn't a case of God going zap and suddenly a bird has a beak more suited to cracking nuts than it does eating insects. We can actually measure the physical changes and observe them happening. Here are some examples of speciation: Oenothera lamarckiana and Oenothera gigas Tragopogon miscellus and Tragopogon mirus Stephanomeira malheurensis and Stephanomeira exigua And a well known example of speciation in action is Drosophila, the fruit fly.
Bertrand Russell - "If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world (Universe) as god" I agree with the dour bastard.
I looked up the first of those, someone or other discovered a variant and named it Oenothera Gigas. Is it worth looking up the rest? We know things can change shape and colour, via our interference (dogs) or naturally (sticklebacks in lakes) or as a reaction to environmental changes (moths) or food changes (birds). What we are missing is proof that a new species can evolve. Without proof, all we have is theory.
That was a chromosome variations in Oenothera lamarckiana and Oenothera gigas eh? And what about studies in chloroplast DNA variations in Tragopogon miscellus and Tragopogon mirus? Then there's Stephanomeira exigua which is found among Stephanomeira malheurensis despite exhibiting sporophytic self-incompatibility as opposed to S. malheurensis which self-pollinates. Finally I cite the Faeroe Island house mouse which is a new species that has evolved since it's introduction to the island by Irish monks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_of_the_Faroe_Islands The faroese House Mouse was probably introduced accidentally from Britain by the irish monks as early as in the 6th century. It is the Western European House Mouse (Mus domesticus) but has earlier been wrongfully labelled as Mus musculus. Hybrids of plants interbreeding, as I'm sure you are aware, multi-celled species cannot interbreed succesfully with other species. Fed up of googling examples which don't prove that a species A has evolved into a different Species B.
I like Dawkins, argues the true story of over evolution over an incomprehensibly long period of time is even more fantastic
The House mice (Mus musculus L.) of the Faroe Islands are frequently quoted as examples of rapid evolution, because they seem to be clearly differentiated both from mice in other parts of the world, and between different islands within the Faroe group despite being introduced through human agency within the last millennium. They are also of interest in being among the most climatically stressed mice in the Northern Hemisphere. The present study is an attempt to determine the extent of differentiation between the populations on the six Faroe islands which harbour mice. It is based on size and organ weights, measurements on the mandibles and scapulae, non-metrical variation of the skeleton, and allozymic frequencies at 22 loci. - Journal of Zoology, Volume 185, Issue 1, pages i–ii, 1–146
