Rooting the Tree of Life

I’ve written about phylogenetics before, numerous times, but I wanted to get into something a little more practical and deep at the same time today. I wanted to explain how the evolutionists try to root their overarching tree of life. Most phylogenetic trees focus on small groups of animals. However, for evolution to be true, all life must go back to a common ancestor. That means that somewhere, the evolutionists need to plant the tree of life, aka “root” it on some, likely now-extinct species. Let’s have a look at how they do it.

Regeneration: Not By Chance

A recent paper found that alligators have the ability to grow short sections of their tails back, if they lose them for any reason. The ability appears to be present only in young alligators. This got me thinking about the process of regeneration as a whole and how evolution could possibly explain such a feat.

Plant Evolution to Avoid Humans?

A recent study came out that claimed that some plants have evolved explicitly to avoid harvesting by humans. The study claimed that a species of plant, Fritillaria delavayi, a plant whose bulb is used regularly in Chinese herbal medicine, has evolved to make it harder for humans to find it and harvest it. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, is very interesting, but equivocates on the word “evolution”, like most so called evidences for evolution do.

The Fitness Illusion

The problem here is three fold. One, the evolutionists are very inconsistent with their application of this definition. Second, measuring fitness in this way is, in a sense, the ultimate rescuing device. Third, fitness must be measured at the organismal level, not the genetic level, but evolutionists almost always appeal to genetic fitness.