Page 124 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The Errors of the American National Academy of Sciences

rectly from an embryonic organ known as the mesonephros, while
in reptiles and mammals the mesonephros degenerates towards
the end of embryonic life and plays no role in the formation of the
adult kidney, which is formed instead from a discrete spherical
mass of mesodermal tissue, the metanephros, which develops
quite independently from the mesonephros... 22
The emergence of similar structures as the result of totally dis-

similar processes is frequently encountered, especially in the later
stages of development.
Many animal species undergo a process known as "indirect de-
velopment" on the path to adulthood; in other words, they have a
larval stage. For example, many frogs start life as swimming tad-
poles and turn into four-footed animals at the last stage of meta-
morphosis. There are also other frog species which bypass the
tadpole stage and develop directly. However, most adults from

these directly-developing species are almost indistinguishable from
other frogs that go through the tadpole phase. 23
In short, embryological and genetic research shows that the
concept of homology, which Darwin put forward as proof that liv-
ing things had developed from a common ancestor, actually repre-
sents no such proof at all. A close study of homology demonstrates

that it is a clearly inconsistent evolutionist error.
After citing examples from embryology of the dilemma that
homology poses for the theory of evolution, Richard Milton says,
Many other comparable examples can be given from embryology:
in almost every case they have been put into a file drawer labeled
"unresolved problems of homology" and largely forgotten about. 24
The way in which the NAS ignores facts known to and accepted

by all scientific circles, and tries to portray discredited evidence for
the theory of evolution as the definitive truth, is really astonishing.

122