“Evo-devo” Devolves

Although Ernst Haeckel’s dishonest drawings of embryos, purported proofs of evolution, have long since been uncovered as frauds, the use of embryos in support of evolutionary theory continues to this day. ScienceDaily carries a University of Bath release that explains how a field that is widely identified with Haeckel’s fraud is still fraught with problems today. The story begins on a bad note for evolutionists:

Research in evolutionary developmental biology, known as ‘evo-devo’, is being held back because the dominant model organisms used by scientists are unable to illustrate key questions about evolution[.]

Evolutionary developmental biology examines the embryonic development stages of various organisms and allegedly helps scientists “understand how developmental change underpins evolution.” See our Embryonic Recapitulation Q&A for a variety of articles on this topic.

The article continues by explaining that phylogenetic position, which is said to reflect evolutionary relationships, is:

employed in two common, but problematic, ways, either as a guide to plug holes in unexplored regions of the phylogenetic tree, or as a pointer to species with presumed primitive (ancestral) characteristics.

A key word in that paragraph is presumed: scientists have a presupposed idea of the evolutionary tree of life; using these presuppositions and noting physical similarities, they make determinations about which organisms are related to which others, which organisms are primitive, and so forth; then, the embryos of these organisms are used to effectively reinforce the presupposed evolutionary tree of life

Even evolutionists are now recognizing problems with this model; a co-author of the study, published in Nature Reviews Genetics, explained:

The popular advice of choosing new model organisms to maximise phylogenetic spread is nice to show diversity, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to new general insights about evolution.

So basically, “evo-devo” offers as much proof of and insight into evolutionary theory as do the oft-parodied posters showing ape-like creatures, starting at left, evolving into modern man!