Günter Bechly and the “Species Pair” Problem

A Biologist’s View, African elephants, Asian elephants, Bible, Cambrian Explosion, Charles Darwin, chimps, classes, computers, creations, Darwinism, designs, Evolution, Evolution after Darwin, explosions, fossil record, Genesis, George Gaylord Simpson, Gorilla gorilla, Günter Bechly, Homo sapiens, human exceptionalism, humans, Intelligent Design, Jean Rostand, orders, paleontology, Pan paniscus, phyla, software, species pair problem, theists, TimeTree.org, University of Chicago Press
Asian elephants (like the one at the top of this page) and their African counterparts apparently diverged about 8 million years ago. Source
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Not Out of Context: Comments on Hawks et al. (2000)

anthropology, Aosis, Australopithecines, Australopithecus, autosomes, body plan, body size, bottleneck, brain size, cladogenesis, Evolution, faces, fossil record, Grok, hominids, Homo, Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, Human Origins and Anthropology, John Hawks, Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Biology and Evolution, mtDNA, nuchal areas, nuclear DNA, paleoanthropology, paleontology, population, population size, Religions (journal), Science and Faith in Dialogue, sex chromosomes, skeleton, speciation, Stephen Barr, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The lead author is John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has a popular blog on paleoanthropology. Source
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Is This a Transitional “Missing Link” for Giraffes? Nope

abrupt appearance, ancestors, bedtime story, blood circulation, cell's, Darwinian theory, Evolution, fossil record, giraffe evolution, giraffes, giraffe’s neck, heart, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, missing link, okapi, Samotherium major, taxon, transitional fossils, variations, vertebrae, Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, zoology
The giraffe’s fossil record reflects a pattern of abrupt appearance rather than the infinitesimally small variations. Source
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Giraffes and the Fossil Record: Bad News for Neo-Darwinism

common descent, common design, environmental shifts, Evolution, evolutionary lineage, evolutionary sequence, fossil record, geneticists, geological evidence, giraffe evolution, giraffes, giraffe’s neck, ID The Future, intermediates, Neo-Darwinism, paleontology, Samotherium major, silos, stasis, Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, zoology
Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig highlights the discrepancies in the fossil record that cause the traditional Darwinian narrative to unravel. Source
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On Evolution, Here Is What We Can Believe with High Confidence

adenine, biochemists, biology, E. coli, Evolution, First Rule of Adaptive Evolution, fitness, fossil record, gene, gene transcription, genes, genetics, genotype, homology, information, James Tour, lactose, Michael Behe, natural selection, promoter, random mutations, regulatory control, researchers, Rice University, S. cerevisiae, tryptophan, W303, When Can I Trust What Scientists Say? (series), yeast, YouTube videos
In a pair of YouTube videos, Rice University chemist James Tour and I reviewed more than ten recent studies of experimental evolution. Source
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No. 4 Story for 2025: Farewell to Günter Bechly

Cambridge, Casey Luskin, Center for Science and Culture, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Darwinian theory, Darwinism, Discovery Institute, England, Evolution News, evolutionary biology, Fossil Friday (series), fossil record, Germans, Germany, Günter Bechly, Human Origins, Icons of Evolution, Intelligent Design, intimidation, John West, Jonathan McLatchie, Jonathan Wells, Pacific Ocean, paleontology, Paul Nelson, Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines (film), Richard Sternberg, State Museum of Natural History, Stephen Meyer, Stuttgart, Theistic Evolution (book)
I told Richard Sternberg a story from own experience. I learned about more than paleontology from Bechly. Source
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Scopes in Reverse: A History of Evolution Education in U.S. Public Schools

American Civil Liberties Union, Antonin Scalia, Ball State University, Clarence Darrow, Council of Europe, Dayton, Discovery Institute, DNA, Epperson v. Arkansas, eric hedin, Eugenie Scott, Evolution, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, fossil record, freedom from religion foundation, Günter Bechly, ID 3.0, Inherit the Wind, Intelligent Design, Isaac Newton, Jerry Coyne, John Scopes, Kitzmiller v. Dover, Legal Science (jurisprudence), monkey law, public schools, Richard Sternberg, science education, Scientific Freedom, Scopes v. State, Smithsonian Institution, Stephen Jay Gould, Supreme Court, Tennessee, Texas, Tree of Life, UC Berkeley, University of Idaho, William Jennings Bryan
Undoubtedly there will be more court cases and curriculum battles in the future over how to teach evolution. Source
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Skulls from China Said to Push Origin of Homo sapiens Back to 1 Million Years 

Ann Gauger, BBC, China, Chris Stringer, Denisovans, Evolution, fossil record, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo longi, Homo sapiens, homoplasy, Human Origins, Human Origins and Anthropology, Intelligent Design, Live Science, London, Middle Pleistocene, Natural History Museum, Neanderthals, Ola Hössjer, paleoanthropologists, paleontology, Science (journal), skulls, Yunxian skulls
How many times have we been told that some new paleoanthropological find is “rewriting the story of human evolution”? Source
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Casey Luskin Answers Common Objections to Intelligent Design

"God of the gaps", Australopithecus afarensis, bipedalism, bird groups, Casey Luskin, co-option, Darwinian predictions, evolutionary timeline, flowering plants, fossil record, hand bones, Homo (genus), Human Origins and Anthropology, humans, ID The Future, intelligence, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, irreducibly complex systems, Jacob Vasquez, Junk DNA, knuckle-walkers, land plants, Lucy (fossil), mammals, naturalism, naturalism in the gaps, paleontology, pelvis, scientific knowledge, tree branches, type III secretion system
Dr. Luskin highlights a “large unbridged gap” in the fossil record between ape-like species like Lucy and human-like species. Source
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