Aineo wrote:Your hypothetical scenerio started with a rabbit and ended with a rabbit; it did not start with a rabbit, which then evolved into another phylum. This is a tactic I see used by evolutionists all the time. You want to limit evolution to changes within a group when I am addressing evolution from one phylum to another phylum. Microevolution is an observed fact and we can use the diversity of dogs as an example.
What evolutionary biology cannot show is that all living species of animals evolved from single celled organisms, without appealing to "faith" that this actually happened.
"What would a "speciation event" look like? Are they expecting some kind of miraculous transformation? A speciation, according to the predictions of evolution theory (as opposed to creationist strawman versions thereof), would be a gradual differentiation of two isolated animal populations over time until they were sufficiently dissimilar to be considered two different species. There is no sudden and discrete "event", unless you measure "events" in geologic timescales. So pointing out that we have never seen one of these events suddenly occur in front of us is extremely deceptive; the "event" in question is defined in such a manner that it would inevitably be identified only by monitoring divergent animal populations and characteristics over a period of time and then declaring at some point that they are different enough to be considered separate species (or determining that they have become intersterile: something which has occurred many times despite creationist denials)."
So that is what macroevolution is.
Here are some real cases:
1. Primula kewensis was speciated from Primula verticillata and Primula floribunda in 1912 by Digby via hybridization and polyploidization.
2. It was shown that you could reproduce the existing species Tragopogon mirus by hybridizing Tragopogon dubius and Tragopogon porrifolius, as demonstrated by Owenby in 1950.
3. In 1969, Pasterniani demonstrated speciation (as defined by reproductive isolation) via artificial selection rather than hybridization. He took two existing varieties of maize, planted them in a field, and over a 5 year period, selected only kernels which were not interbred for the next year's planting. At the end of this 5 year period, the plants' natural likelihood of interbreeding had been reduced by an order of magnitude.
4. In 1983, Macnair and Christie were able to show that varieties of the Mimululs guttatus flower which had developed a tolerance to copper were no longer able to breed with varieties which had not developed this tolerance.
http://www.creationtheory.org/Database/Article4
Macroevolution has been observed and explained. That is proof. If you want a less biased explanation:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html
You want evidence on a single celled organism becoming multicellular?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html wrote:
Boraas (1983) reported the induction of multicellularity in a strain of Chlorella pyrenoidosa (since reclassified as C. vulgaris) by predation. He was growing the unicellular green alga in the first stage of a two stage continuous culture system as for food for a flagellate predator, Ochromonas sp., that was growing in the second stage. Due to the failure of a pump, flagellates washed back into the first stage. Within five days a colonial form of the Chlorella appeared. It rapidly came to dominate the culture. The colony size ranged from 4 cells to 32 cells. Eventually it stabilized at 8 cells. This colonial form has persisted in culture for about a decade. The new form has been keyed out using a number of algal taxonomic keys. They key out now as being in the genus Coelosphaerium, which is in a different family from Chlorella..
This is what a change from a single celled organism to a multi-cellular organism.