From: me22over7@gmail.com   
      
   On 23/02/2026 3:18 am, RonO wrote:   
   > On 2/22/2026 12:32 AM, MarkE wrote:   
   >> Evidence is emerging that Dawkins' "Mt Improbable" is not Mt Fuji but   
   >> rather "rugged in all directions" [1]. Neat textbook depictions give   
   >> way to the reality of a "lack of viable evolutionary pathways among   
   >> the major optima."   
   >>   
   >> Beneficial mutations do not work together, rather, "individually   
   >> beneficial mutations are often mutually incompatible, leading to   
   >> ruggedness on the fitness landscape."   
   >>   
   >> This is at the molecular level with an empirically determined ribozyme   
   >> fitness landscape. The paper's conclusion?   
   >>   
   >> "Nevertheless, in the absence of such mechanisms, the emergence of a   
   >> globally optimal sequence is likely to result from chance events   
   >> rather than natural selection."   
   >>   
   >> An appeal to chance of this magnitude is a deal-breaker: "We can   
   >> accept a certain amount of luck in our explanations, but not too   
   >> much." (The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins)   
   >>   
   >> A similar situation applies for proteins: "...an emerging picture of   
   >> pervasive epistasis" within proteins [2].   
   >>   
   >> "Both types of interaction are rampant, but specific epistasis has   
   >> stronger effects on the rate and outcomes of evolution, because it   
   >> imposes stricter constraints and modulates evolutionary potential more   
   >> dramatically; it therefore makes evolution more contingent on low-   
   >> probability historical events..."   
   >>   
   >> Note the "*more contingent on low-probability historical events*".   
   >>   
   >> While selection acts on the phenotype as a whole, molecular evolution   
   >> underlies the process.   
   >>   
   >> My prediction: this "emerging picture" will continue to build as   
   >> evidence against a foundation of Darwinian evolution.   
   >>   
   >> _______   
   >>   
   >> [1] Mapping a Systematic Ribozyme Fitness Landscape Reveals a   
   >> Frustrated Evolutionary Network for Self-Aminoacylating RNA   
   >> https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.8b13298   
   >>   
   >> "...optimization of activity over the entire landscape would be   
   >> frustrated by large valleys of low activity."   
   >>   
   >> "Our results show that the experimentally determined ribozyme activity   
   >> landscape exhibits a degree of frustration, as individually beneficial   
   >> mutations are often mutually incompatible, leading to ruggedness on   
   >> the fitness landscape."   
   >>   
   >> "...the inability to traverse the landscape globally corresponds to an   
   >> inability to restructure the ribozyme without losing activity."   
   >>   
   >> "The ruggedness of the empirically determined ribozyme fitness   
   >> landscape reported here can be described by the Rough Mt. Fuji model,   
   >> which is a combination of a smooth 'Mt. Fuji' landscape and the random   
   >> House-of- Cards landscape...we suggest that the major [random] House-   
   >> of-Cards character found implies a substantial level of frustration,   
   >> consistent with the lack of viable evolutionary pathways among the   
   >> major optima."   
   >>   
   >> "The frustrated nature of the evolutionary network suggests that   
   >> chance emergence of a ribozyme motif would be more important than   
   >> optimization by natural selection."   
   >>   
   >> "It should be noted that mechanisms that favor greater genetic   
   >> diversity, such as recombination, gene duplication, or epistasis among   
   >> genes, could enable crossing of fitness valleys."   
   >>   
   >> That is, a familiar mandatory positive spin, but followed by their   
   >> real conclusion:   
   >>   
   >> "Nevertheless, in the absence of such mechanisms, the emergence of a   
   >> globally optimal sequence is likely to result from chance events   
   >> rather than natural selection."   
   >>   
   >> _______   
   >>   
   >> [2] Epistasis in protein evolution   
   >> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26833806/   
   >>   
   >   
   > And Bumble Bees can't fly.   
   >   
   > Evolution by natural selection has been documented.  It happens and is   
   > happening.  You have to stop denying reality.  You have to be a nut job   
   > to deny that evolution by natural selection has happened and is   
   > currently happening.   
   >   
   > The reason to believe put up their recreation model to account for the   
   > evolution of the anoles lizards in the Caribbean on multiple islands.   
   > They claim that the new types of lizards are recreations of some   
   > original, and only look like they are related by descent with   
   > modification.  On islands with some difference in altitude of their   
   > coasts and highlands the lizards have evolved two different physical   
   > types, that differed from the coasts and highlands, along with other   
   > differences between islands.  What some researchers did was to cross the   
   > two types and make hybrids, and they released the hybrids onto an island   
   > that did not have anoles lizards.  The hybrids were intermediate in   
   > phenotype, but after just a few generations the highland phenotype was   
   > reconstituted and predominantly found in the highlands and the coastal   
   > phenotype had been reconstituted and was predominantly found in the   
   > lowlands.  Natural selection had selected the phenotypes adapted to   
   > those conditions out of the mess that segregated from the hybrids.   
   >   
      
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