Page 50 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

In relative isolation, organisms undergo different types of environmental
stresses and pressures that effect the organism at a micro-evolutionary
level and also at a genetic-drift level because now we’re talking about mul-
ticellular organisms that sexually reproduce. These variables stresses and
environmental pressures can also result in epigenetic changes that can
affect a species’ phenotype and behavior.
And over time, each niche will mold and support a species that will
be specific to that ecological niche. So Darwin actually described a
speciation event in the observation of the different types of finches on the
Galapagos Islands. He identified fifteen or sixteen different types of finch
that were primarily one of the homework of the different species was the
size and width and thickness of the beak of the finch. But recent studies
have indicated that beak morphology or the shape of the beak changes in
an oscillating fashion not in a progressive fashion towards some new and
novel structure. So in wet environments the beak will be thin and narrow.
In dry environments the beaks will tend to be thicker and wider. So this
suggests at least one level speciation results from a type of phenotypic
plasticity that is adaptive to varying environmental changes. In other
words, it's not unidirectional change or a progression to something utterly
new. It's an oscillating change. And it’s also not allowing an organism to
make giant leaps from one taxonomical level to another. All of Darwin's
finches remained finches.
Evolutionists erroneously maintain that living things on different
continents or in different environments develop into different species.
However, the different characteristics arising in different regions are
nothing more than population differences. The genetic combination of
those life forms obliged to reproduce in any one region is restricted, and
specific characteristics in their genes come to the fore. Yet there is no
question of any new species emerging.
It’s also true for evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould’s research
in snails, also on an island environment, where the snails were isolated
into different geographical regions. But again, what Stephen Jay Gould
described was biodiversity within snails that were well suited to particular
ecological niches. But they were all snails. It wasn’t adaptive diversification