How do Creationists explain vestigal organs?

[renewed21]

could someone explain the coccyx?

 

[Skaloop]

could someone explain the coccyx?

Explain how?

Here's the wiki:

Coccyx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What more information were you looking for?

 

[Diakoneo10]

THAT'S NOT WHAT VESTIGIAL MEANS!!!!!

Fer F's sake, have you not even read any of this thread?

Vestigial: degenerative, atrophied, having become functionless

Maybe you should buy a dictionary before charging others.

 

[renewed21]

Explain how?

Here's the wiki:

Coccyx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What more information were you looking for?

explain why my coccyx is vestigal as opposed to being functional

 

[Skaloop]

Vestigial: degenerative, atrophied, having become functionless

Maybe you should buy a dictionary before charging others.

Maybe you should learn some scientific terms rather than colloquial ones.

And maybe you should learn what vestigial actually means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial

 

[Skaloop]

explain why my coccyx is vestigal as opposed to being functional

Because, as has already been said many times, vestigial does not mean without function, and the original use of the coccyx was to support a tail, but we don't have tail so it no longer serves that purpose and is therefore vestigial. It's functional, sure, just not the way it was originally functional. Which is what vestigial means.

 

[renewed21]

Because, as has already been said many times, the original use of the coccyx was to support a tail, but we don't have tail so it no longer serves that purpose and is therefore vestigial. It's functional, sure, just not the way it was originally functional. Which is what vestigial means.

Could someone please explain why there are legless lizards?

 

[SkyWriting]

No, you're wrong. Whether you misspoke or not, the basis of your argument is wrong.

So you don't think this is real?

Evolutionary Biology: What are the coolest or most interesting examples of parallel evolution? - Quora

 

[DaneaFL]

Could someone please explain why there are legless lizards?

How Hard-Headed Lizards Lost Their Legs | Lizards, Snakes & Evolution | LiveScience

It happens more than you might think... I know, weird right? Why would not having legs be more beneficial than having them?

Nature is pretty awesome... or it's just God playing some kind of cruel joke.

http://www.livescience.com/3053-evolution-action-lizards-losing-limbs.html

 

[Skaloop]

So you don't think this is real?

Evolutionary Biology: What are the coolest or most interesting examples of parallel evolution? - Quora

Oh, they're real. None of them are identical, though. They are superficially similar. But you realize that what you just presented is evidence for evolution, right?

 

[Shemjaza]

Could someone please explain why there are legless lizards?

Some time ago the lizards with less developed or missing legs survived better then their normal legged brethren.

It has actually happened a number of different times.

Some possible advantages for not having legs:

• Better for living underground and hunting little creatures in tunnels

• Better for swimming to hunt or escape from predators

• The possibility of being mistaken for a snake and left alone by things that might eat you otherwise

 

[Tiberius]

I was referring to parallel evolution. But you all know that and are just teasing me.

Parallel evolution - definition from Biology-Online.org

Convergent vs. Parallel Evolution

You are still wrong.

Parallel evolution can explain broad similarities in general function, but in EVERY case examined, there have always been a multitude of differences that are easy to spot.

For example, the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) which died out about 100 or so years ago (give or take a few decades I think) was very similar in form to canines. However, it was a marsupial, like the kangaroo. The close similarities came about because it lead the same kind of life as canines. But only in a superficial way did it resemble canines. Any closer examination showed many features which clearly separated it from the canine family.

Canines and Thylacines didn't inherit their similar features from a common ancestor, and as a result there are a huge number of differences in those similarities. Even though their skulls are a similar shape, for example, the structure of the skulls is different.

However, when we look at all life, we see things in common that are so detailed that the only rational explanation is that they evolved from a common ancestor.

Parallel evolution cannot explain such close similarities.

 

[USincognito]

Vestigial: degenerative, atrophied, having become functionless

Maybe you should buy a dictionary before charging others.

And maybe you should learn that when discussing a complex subject like a field of science, the dictionary is the absolute worst place to start when trying to gain an understanding of it. Start with literature/research presented for laymen.

Vestigial structures have lost function or lost their original function and now serve a different one.

Muscles that cause our ears to wiggle, our noses to flare and our toes to grasp are all examples.

 

[USincognito]

explain why my coccyx is vestigal as opposed to being functional

Because it doesn't function as a tail, like it did in our tailed ancestors. No ape has a tail and our shared ancestor with tailed primates lived about 25 million years ago. All our fellow apes have a coccyx though.

 

[USincognito]

Could someone please explain why there are legless lizards?

Same reason why there are legless amphibians.

 

[Tiberius]

Could someone please explain why there are legless lizards?

Because back when their ancestors had legs, they lived a lifestyle in which those individuals with slightly shorter legs had a reproductive advantage. They produced more offspring, creating a new generation in which the average leg length was slightly shorter. And the same thing happened again, and then again and again. Over many generations, their legs got short and shorter until they were gone altogether.

 

[Metal Minister]

Because, as has already been said many times, vestigial does not mean without function, and the original use of the coccyx was to support a tail, but we don't have tail so it no longer serves that purpose and is therefore vestigial. It's functional, sure, just not the way it was originally functional. Which is what vestigial means.

For my own education, can you show how it used to support a tail, and didn't always do what it does now?

 

[Loudmouth]

explain why my coccyx is vestigal as opposed to being functional

Vestitial does not mean "without function". The coccyx can have function and still be vestigial just as a typewriter that is incapable of typing can still function as a paperweight.

 

[Loudmouth]

Vestigial: degenerative, atrophied, having become functionless

Maybe you should buy a dictionary before charging others.

Perhaps you should check with scientists to see how they use the term:

"An organ serving for two purposes, may become rudimentary or utterly aborted for one, even the more important purpose, and remain perfectly efficient for the other.... "--Charles Darwin

"formerly of greater physiological significance than at present".--Robert Wiedersheim, 1898

From the very beginnings of evolutionary studies the word vestigial has never required the organ to have no function at all.

 

[Loudmouth]

So you don't think this is real?

Yes, convergent evolution is real. Your point?