The Peppered Moth; was "Native Australian budgerigars are blue in colour"

[Michael Tarburton <>]

G'day All

I do not believe the Peppered Moth story has ever been good evidence  
for evolution.
Firstly what did we end up with?: two forms of Biston betularia.  No  
new genes at all.  There is no evidence of even a new subspecies as  
both forms were to our knowledge (not assumption) always there.  Even  
the text that I started this thread on states "it is    thought       
that the black variety originally arose as a result of a mutation.   
Even they do not say we have good evidence for that.
Secondly that the peppered and melanistic forms are reversible  
showing adaptation to some unknown environmental fluctuation is not  
evidence for a new form of organism or even a new gene.  It is  
clearly not pollution affected tree trunks that the moth is  
responding to as the lighter form started to re-emerge & increase in  
proportion before the trunks themselves started to lighten in colour.
Thirdly Why would the journal Evolutionary Biology publish the  
arguments if they did not see them as worthy?
Fourthly Where is the logic in testing for bird predators in a niche  
(tree trunks) that the moths are very rarely found in?  Good science  
would test in the natural surrounds, where different birds or other  
predators might be an influence.
Fifthly why appeal to a journalist who claims one of the authors is  
also a creationist - lets deal with the facts of the argument.   
Evolutionists do not have a monopoly on reasoning and logical  
thinking?  Have a look at the creationists arguments rather than  
condemn them for for what they are.
Thank you for your arguments

Cheers

Mike Tarburton




On 19/03/2007, at 10:31 PM, Andrew Hobbs wrote:


> Hi,
>
> I dispute very strongly your suggestions about the peppered moth.  
> It is still one of the strongest, best supported cases of evolution  
> and it has every right to be quoted in text books. In fact I would  
> question the motives of an author of a modern textbook on General  
> Biology if it started omitting this as an example.

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