" We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." - Dissent from Darwin

Natural selection [is used] carelessly as a mantra, as in the evidence-free “just-so stories” concocted out of thin air by mentally lazy adaptationists. (Stephen Jay Gould)

In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. (Isaac newton)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

How VENUS got her trap

"The idea that plants – being the quintessence of peaceful
organisms standing at the basis of the food chain of life –
could themselves catch and eat animals, appeared so improbable to most botanists and other researchers that from the first descriptions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
it took several hundred years for the carnivorous nature of these plants to be generally recognized ... The evolution of leaves with trap systems from noncarnivorous ones is mysterious, and there are no widely accepted hypotheses. Nachtwey concluded in 1959 concerning the origin of Utricularia’s trap that none of the contemporary evolutionary theories were able to answer these questions, and proposed that the answer might lie outside of the present scientific paradigms.

Story Researchers: Wolf-Ekkehard Lo¨nnig, and Heinz-Albert Becker, Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
Source: Carnivorous plants

Story Researchers: Uncommon Descent
Source: Loennig and Becker on the origin of carnivorous plants

P.S. Since we have not yet found a story teller who has come up with even a slightly entertaining Darwinian Just So Story for the Venus Fly trap, we were forced to publish an article by two story researchers. Story Teller contributions are welcome. Love Dolly

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