Friday, July 13, 2007

Evolution or Selective Breeding?

National Geographic has an article about male butterflies on the Samoan islands that have been decimated by bacteria. They have evolved to become resistant and have made a comeback. Butterfly Evolves Leg Up on Male-Killing Parasite I have a Pug dog on my lap and it is amazing to think she was breed from a wolf. Has nature been breeding all along? Some of the butterflies were already resistant to the bacteria and obviously being the only surviving males they then passed on this characteristic to their offspring. I dislike articles like this that are about selective breeding and label it evolution. It is like the word evolution has to be dropped at every chance. I guess the Pug on my lap is a new evolution and not a breed of dog. Before you post a comment about whether or not there is evolution, think about the real question here. Is the use of the word evolving proper for a case of natural breeding of an existing characteristic? If the answer is yes then why do we call it breeding a dog and not evolving a dog?

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