re: #117 b_sharp

During work on Drosophila, a ‘macro’ mutation was triggered that caused a fly with 4 wings instead of two. Flies don’t have 4 wings so it could only be considered a new species, if not genus.

I didn’t know that, which is not surprising given that I haven’t tried to keep up with all the biology that’s been discovered since I graduated. IMHO the result deserves wider dissemination than it’s receiving.

What do you mean by speciation?

I had in mind a political definition rather than a scientific one: changes dramatic enough to refute the creationist claim that evolution only accounts for minor changes. For example—I repeat my ignorance of the field—, change a little wingless critter that lives on land into one that lives in water and another one that flies.

(Btw, this whole brouhaha seems bizarre to me; I have trouble believing how serious creationists are about it. When I was a boy I would look for fossils in the crushed limestone in parking lots. It seemed perfectly reasonable that I was part of that chain of development.)