Page 111 - The Evolution Impasse 1

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E. coli bacterium Bacteria . . . are the organisms which,
because of their huge numbers, produce
No living thing has ever undergone the most mutants. [B]acteria . . . exhibit a
evolution through the mechanisms of na- great fidelity to their species. The bacil-
tural selection and mutation. Yet evolu- lus Escherichia coli, whose mutants have
been studied very carefully, is the best
tionist biologists sometimes maintain
example. The reader will agree that it is
that we cannot observe the evolutionary
surprising, to say the least, to want to
effect of the mechanisms of natural se-
prove evolution and to discover its mec-
lection and mutation because these mec- hanisms and then to choose as a material
hanisms work over very lengthy periods for this study a being which practically
of time. stabilized a billion ye-
This is no more than a distraction ars ago!
with no scientific foundation, because
What is the
has never been observed in such orga- use of their un-
nisms as fruit flies or bacteria, whose ceasing mutati-
very short life spans make it possible for ons, if they do not [produ-
scientists to study them through thou- ce evolutionary] change?
sands of generations.
Pierre Paul Grassé comments on the
stasis that makes bacterial evolution im-
possible:
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