A picture of a white deer!
by Iamallcool 24 Replies latest jw friends
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EntirelyPossible
They are beautiful. Evolution in action!
The Seneca White Deer are a rare herd of deer living within the confines of the former Seneca Army Depot in Seneca County, New York. When the 10,600-acre (43 km 2 ) depot was created in 1941, a 24-mile (39 km) fence was erected around its perimeter, isolating a small herd of White-tailed deer, some of whom had white coats. These deer are not albino, but instead carry a set of recessive genes for all-white coats. [ 1 ] The fence creates a genetic bottleneck causing high levels of inbreeding. The constant inbreeding (mating of close relatives like parents and children, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, greatgrandparents and greatgrandchildren...etc.) has allowed the various genes to align in offspring to be expressed as white deer. Incomplete alignment produces the piebald or brown/white splotched deer. With the artificial protection of the fence, the wildlife inside the depot flourished. The white deer are an example of artificial selection and are subject to inbreeding depression which can lead to reduced fecundity and malformations. [citation needed] The white deer population behind the fence at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center is subject to severe foot and leg deformities leading to crippling.[1]
In the 1950s, the depot commander forbade GI's from shooting any white deer. The deer population has since grown to about 700 head, approximately 300 of which are white, making it the largest herd of white deer in the world.
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Gayle
wow, thanks,, I needed a"Peaceful Moment"
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cantleave
Why has the all white, recessive gene become prominant in this gene pool? If this were natural selection in action there would be an environmental advantage to the white pelted individuals. It is as EP's article stated, artificial selection. Therefore not true evolution.
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EntirelyPossible
It is as EP's article stated, artificial selection. Therefore not true evolution.
It's very true evolution. Instead of natural selection, it is artificial. Artifical doesn't make the evolution not true, it just makes a component of it artificial. If someone with an artificial leg were running, would you say they weren't really running because on of the leg was artificial?
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cantleave
I agree with you EP, in the strictest sense of evolution which is "the change in alelle frequency with time" is certainly occuring.
What I am saying that in terms of natural evolution where ideas like "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" come from, this is not what is happening here. The reason I say this is that it is the fence creating a small gene pool that is controlling the process, and not the environment.
I make the distinction because natural evolution, resulting in new species can not occur without natural selection to ensure survival of the fittest.
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EntirelyPossible
I get you, however, I would make the argument that the evolution is natural (and it could be argued that the selection within the environment is natural), but that the environment is NOT.
Either way, we are both agreeing it's evolution in action :)
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Aussie Oz
There just white deer...
genetics...inbreeding, whatever.
I am neither pro or anti evolution (frankly i don't give a damn) but this just sounds like grasping at straws of 'proof'. Evolution is meant to take millions of years as i remember, not be the result of 3 generations of animal incest.
It's all a 'theory' people...as is anything to do with 'how we got here'.
Just appreciate them for what they are, not what you think they mean!
Oz
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ziddina
"The white deer population behind the fence at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center is subject to severe foot and leg deformities leading to crippling..."
Poor things....
"Why has the all white, recessive gene become prominant in this gene pool? If this were natural selection in action there would be an environmental advantage to the white pelted individuals. It is as EP's article stated, artificial selection. Therefore not true evolution. ...." Can't Leave
Geographic isolation often produces new species...
Look at the fauna of the Galapagos Islands, for example...
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ziddina
And now for the white squirrels of North Carolina...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxdVzW2kk1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLBvy9iajEo
You'll notice that these buggers aren't albinos....