No. Gen2 remembered the question. You didn't. The question was not "Can you name one", the question, phrased as a challenge, was "Go ahead. Name three, with citations to the papers wherein this serious problem is revealed. Heck, just name one, with an appropriate citation."
Aft.
Data dump part 2:
If an average gene has about 1000 bases, then an average protein would have over 300 amino acids, each of which are called “residues” by protein chemists. And indeed proteins typically require hundreds of amino acids in order to perform their functions. This means that an average-length protein represents just one possible sequence among an astronomically large number—20300, or over 10390—of possible amino-acid sequences of that length. Putting these numbers in perspective, there are only 1065 atoms in our Milky Way galaxy and 1080 elementary particles in the known universe
Molecular biologists have estimated that a minimally complex single-celled organism would require between 318,000 and 562,000 base pairs of DNA to produce the proteins necessary to maintain life.17 More complex single cells might require upwards of a million base pairs of DNA. Yet to assemble the proteins necessary to sustain a complex arthropod such as a trilobite would need orders of magnitude more protein-coding instructions. By way of comparison, the genome size of a modern arthropod, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, is approximately 140 million base pairs
functional 92-amino-acid sequence there are roughly another 1063 nonfunctional sequences of the same length which is hilarious because we all know the problems hahaha. I mean after that it gets crazy. Mike did you get that ?
Unlike radiometric dating methods, molecular clocks depend on a host of contingent factors. As Valentine, Jablonski, and Erwin note, “Different genes in different clades evolve at different rates, different parts of genes evolve at different rates and, most importantly, rates within clades have changed over time.”35 So great is this variation that one paper in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution cautions, “The rate of molecular evolution can vary considerably among different organisms, challenging the concept of the ‘molecular clock.’ ”
Germ-cell formation has indisputable evolutionary importance. To evolve, a population or a species must leave offspring; to leave offspring, species of animals must generate primordial germ cells. No PGCs, no reproduction; no reproduction, no evolution. One might expect, therefore, that if a group of animals is all derived from a common ancestor (with a particular mode of gamete production), then the mode of germ-cell formation should also be essentially the same from one animal species to the next in that group. Further, assuming the common ancestry of all animals, our expectation of homologous modes of germ-cell formation among the animals ought to be higher than for any other tissue type, cell line, or mode of development. Why? Because mutations affecting the developmental mechanisms that govern PGC formation inevitably disrupt successful reproduction.50 Again, if a species cannot reproduce, it cannot evolve.51 Thus, s
For this reason, indistinct fossils such as Vernanimalcula—even if we take them as representing a common ancestor of many bilaterians—document little of the Darwinian story of the history of animal life. Hugely significant gaps in the fossil record would still remain, because the Precambrian fossil record simply does not document the gradual emergence of the crucial distinguishing characteristics of the Cambrian animals. The important anatomical novelties that define the individual Cambrian phyla as well as their first clear representatives arise as suddenly as ever. To say that a form such as Vernanimalcula, or any of the other relatively indistinct Ediacaran forms, solves the problem of the missing Precambrian fossil record would be a bit like saying that a metal cylinder demonstrates all the steps involved in the construction of a toaster, automobile, submarine, or jet airplane simply because all these technological objects utilize “metal enclosures.” I
Even the most favorable interpretations of these trace fossils suggest that they indicate the presence of no more than two animal body plans (of largely unknown characteristics). Thus, the Ediacaran record falls far short of establishing the existence of the wide variety of transitional intermediates that a Darwinian view of life’s history requires. The Cambrian explosion attests to the first appearance of organisms representing at least twenty phyla and many more subphyla and classes, each manifesting distinctive body plans. In a best case, the Ediacaran forms represent possible ancestors for, at most, four distinct Cambrian body plans, even counting those documented only by trace fossils. This leaves the vast majority of the Cambrian phyla with no apparent ancestors in the Precambrian rocks (i.e., at least nineteen of the twenty-three phyla present in the Cambrian have no representative in Precambrian strata).33 Third, even if representatives of four animal phyla were present in the Ediacaran period, it does not follow that these forms were necessarily transitional or intermediate to the Cambrian animals. The Precambrian sponges (phylum Porifera), for example, were quite similar to their Cambrian brethren, thus demonstrating, not a gradual transformation from a simpler precursor or the presence of an ancestor common to many forms, but quite possibly only an earlier first appearance of a known Cambrian form. The same may be true of whatever kind of worm may be attested by Precambrian tracks and burrows. Moreover, even assuming, as some evolutionary biologists do,34 that later Cambrian animals had a sponge-like Precambrian ancestor, the gap in complexity as measured by the number of cell types alone, to say nothing of the specific anatomical structures and distinct modes of body plan organization that are present in later animals but not in sponges, leaves a massive discontinuity in the fossil record that requires explanation (much like the morphological gap between Spriggina and actual arthropods). AN EDIACARAN MINI-EXPLOSION The Ediacaran fossils themselves provide evidence of a puzzling leap in biological complexity, though not one nearly great enough (or of the right kind) to account for the Cambrian explosion
A survey of recent deep-divergence studies, by molecular evolutionists Dan Graur and William Martin, notes one study in which the authors claim to be 95 percent certain that their divergence date for certain animal groups falls within a 14.2-billion-year range—more than three times the age of the earth and clearly a meaningless result
Foote’s statistical analysis of this pattern, documented by an ever increasing number of paleontological investigations, demonstrates just how improbable it is that there ever existed a myriad of as yet undiscovered intermediate forms of animal life—forms that could close the morphological distance between the Cambrian phyla one tiny evolutionary step at a time. In effect, Foote’s analysis suggests that since paleontologists have reached repeatedly into the proverbial barrel, sampled it from one end to the other, and found only representatives of various radically distinct phyla but no rainbow of intermediates, we shouldn’t hold our breath expecting such intermediates to eventually emerge. He asks “whether we have a representative sample of morphological diversity and therefore can rely on patterns documented in the fossil record.” The answer, he says, is yes
In reconstructing the evolutionary history of life, most evolutionary biologists today emphasize the importance of homology. They assume that similarities in anatomy and in the sequences of information-bearing biomacromolecules such as DNA, RNA, and protein point strongly to a common ancestor.2 They also assume that the degree of difference in such cases is on average proportional to the time elapsed since the divergence from a common ancestor. The greater the difference in the common feature or molecular sequence, the farther back the ancestor from which the feature or sequence arose. Evolutionary biologists have used this approach to try to discern the evolutionary history of the Cambrian animals. If the Precambrian fossil record refuses to disclose the secrets of Precambrian evolution, so goes the thinking, perhaps the study of comparative anatomy and molecular homologies will.
