Page 65 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

Why do the proponents of punctuated evolution insist on the concept of narrow populations? The
answer is obvious: Their objective is to "explain" the lack of intermediate forms in the fossil record. That
is why their accounts insist that "Evolutionary changes took place in narrow populations and very

rapidly, for which reason insufficient traces have been left in the fossil record."
In fact, however, recent scientific experiments and observations have revealed that in genetic terms,
narrow populations are a disadvantage for evolution. Far from developing in such a way as to give rise to
robust new species, narrow populations actually produce severe genetic defects. The reason is that in
small populations, individuals continually interbreed, reproducing within a narrow genetic pool. For

that reason, normally "heterozygotic" individuals become increasingly "homozygotic." Their normally
recessive defective genes become dominant, and genetic defects and diseases increasingly emerge within
the population. 45

In order to investigate this topic, chickens were observed for 35 years. These observations established
that chickens kept in a narrow population became increasingly weaker in genetic terms. Egg production
fell from 100% to 80%; reproduction rates from 93% to 74%. But through conscious human intervention—
with chickens being brought in from other populations—this genetic contraction was reversed, and the
basic chicken population began moving back in the direction of normality. 46

This and similar findings clearly show that there is no scientific validity to the claim that narrow pop-
ulations are the source of evolutionary development, behind which adherents of punctuated evolution
find shelter. James W. Valentine and Douglas H. Erwin have stated the impossibility of new species form-

ing by way of punctuated evolutionary mechanisms:
The required rapidity of the change implies either a few large steps or many and exceedingly rapid

smaller ones. Large steps are tantamount to saltations and raise the problems of fitness barriers; small
steps must be numerous and entail the problems discussed under microevolution. The periods of stasis
raise the possibility that the lineage would enter the fossil record, and we reiterate that we can identify

none of the postulated intermediate forms. Finally, the large numbers of species that must be generated
so as to form a pool from which the successful lineage is selected are nowhere to be found. We conclude
that the probability that species selection is a general solution to the origin of higher
taxa is not great, and that neither of the contending theories of evolutionary change at
the species level, phyletic gradualism or punctuated equilibrium, seem applicable to

the origin of new body plans. 47

Adnan Oktar 63