Evolved or Engineered? A Geneticist Evaluates the Panda's Thumb
Description
In 1980, influential paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote that “we can know that evolution has happened by the imperfections and oddities that life shows.” But is that true? And what if we take a closer look at those assumed evolutionary oddities and see instead evidence of engineered elegance? On this episode of the ID The Future podcast, host @Andrew_McDiarmid welcomes retired geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig to discuss his new paper reviewing the debate over the panda’s thumb.
Giant pandas have an elongated wrist bone, the radial sesamoid, that allows them to handle and eat bamboo with great dexterity. Some claim it’s an imperfectly and inefficiently formed structure that is clear evidence of evolutionary processes at work. Others call it one of the most extraordinary manipulation systems in the mammalian world and clear evidence of engineering. So which is it? That’s the topic of our conversation today.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introducing Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig
02:38 Dr. Lönnig's Scientific Career
04:53 Describing the Panda's Thumb
07:51 Stephen J. Gould's Panda Principle
13:31 Suboptimal or Optimal?
15:21 Examples of Dexterity
19:35 We Need the Right Knowledge to Evaluate
21:49 An Engineer's Counter-Argument
25:19 Dual Function of Panda's Hand
30:23 Massive Contradiction in Evolutionary View
32:35: Preview of Part 2
Check out more episodes of ID The Future:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR8...
#pandasthumb #evolution #intelligentdesign #panda
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