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Originally Posted by VeeDDzz`
I'm not understanding your point about ancient viral DNA and how this relates to Darwinism or what your assertion or conjecture is in general. Any elaboration? Or just wait for a biologist?
So the point may be related but wasn't my initial point. The point is that epigenetics is discovering that there is more genetic flexibility in pre-existing genetic information than was thought before. Behavioral and dietary choices by parents can alter future generations body forms, etc. The old pre-darwinian theory about giraffes ancestors stretching their necks and having offspring with longer necks is turning out to be not such a crazy idea after all (maybe not a good example, but similar).
There was a study done on the Dutch Famine of 1944 where Nazis basically blockaded the Netherlands. Women who were pregnant in the first three months of the blockade had children who were more prone to being obese. The pregnant women in the last part of the blockade had lower than average birth weight babies whose body weights persisted below average throughout life. The really weird part is that both sets of
grandchildren have been shown to have the same effects.
This directly contradicts the theory that random mutations over long periods of time are what is responsible for most morphology changes. Epigenetics is showing the precise opposite to be true, namely, large changes over extremely short periods of time. It doesn't mean random mutation doesn't happen and contribute, but it is challenging it as the major driver in evolution.
Last edited by DoOrDoNot; 06-08-2018 at 12:51 AM.