There are fewer species on Earth than science has defined
https://nautil.us/why-the-earth-has-fewer-species-than-we-think-237177/
Excerpts: "The 2012 trip was to sample the DNA of the two “species” as well as to better understand how many nautiluses live on a given area of seafloor. We caught 30 nautiluses over nine days, snipped off a one-millimeter-long tip of one of each nautilus’ 90 tentacles, and returned all back to their habitats alive (if cranky). All the samples were later analyzed in the large machines that read DNA sequences, and to our complete surprise we found that the DNA of N. pompilius and the morphologically different N. stenomphalus was identical. No genetic difference, yet radically different morphology."
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| Nautilus pompilius |
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| Nautilus stenomphalus |
"More and more, biologists are discovering that organisms thought to be different species are, in fact, but one. A recent example is that the formerly accepted two species of giant North American mammoths (the Columbian mammoth and the woolly mammoth) were genetically the same but the two had phenotypes determined by environment."
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| Woolly mammoth |
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| Columbian mammoth |
"The study of epigenetics really comes down to observing two types of epigenetic changes. The first type of changes are the “normal” epigenetic changes that organisms go through, honed by natural selection. (My comment: honed by diet, climate, stressors, toxicants, sensory stimuli, pheromones etc.) For instance, every cell in our bodies contains all the necessary information to become one of the many specific kinds of cells necessary to keep us alive, such as the nerve cells, muscle cells, and the many other highly specialized cell types that are necessary for living. Every cell contains the DNA information to become any or all. But it does. But they do not. The science involved in epigenetics looks to understand how it is that a specific cell at a specific time in a specific anatomical place “knows” how to change into something quite different according to time, place, and function. But the changes are “foreseen” by the organism and beneficial."
My comment: Epigenetic modifications, such as altering DNA methylation patterns typically result in genetic errors. The most common mutational hotspot is C>T alteration due to tendency of methylated cytosine turning to thymine in deamination caused by oxidative stress. For example, there are ~32,000 C>T alterations in human genome worldwide that scientists are trying to repair. These mutations are strongly associated with hereditary genetic diseases. Epigenetic modifications never result in any kind of evolution because they don't add up novel information in the genome but only regulate pre-existing information with epigenetic writers, readers and erasers. However, epigenetics is behind the biodiversity. This is why modern science perfectly supports biblical creation of kinds that have the potential for ecological adaptation and variation.
