The purpose of this thread was to demonstrate that the ToE is not supported by evidence, or provable science....only by biased interpretation of fossil remains and the power of suggestion made by those who carry weight in the scientific world. You are welcome to all of that.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the theory of evolution is supported by mountains of evidence, fossils being only a small part of it.
Let's begin with the kind of evidence available to Darwin
[1] Fossil evidence - Darwin had seen extinct transitional forms document change in traits through time. For example, Darwin found the larger fossils of extinct sloths in the same region as present-day sloths.
Since Darwin’s time, many more transitional forms have been uncovered such as Tiktaalic, an extinct fish-amphibian intermediate, Archeopteryx, an extinct dinosaur bird intermediate, and multiple hominan fossils of extinct forms leading to man.
We have also examined much of the geologic column, and find the fossils stratified, older ones being deeper and more recent forms above them, including more complex forms not found in deeper strata.
[2] Vestigial features in animals - These include tiny, useless leg bones in whales, dolphins, and some snakes, and unused eyes in blind cave fish. Darwin was the first to describe and interpret these traits.
[3] Biogeographical data. Darwin observed the variation in the Galapagos finches, especially their beaks, that varied according to island and food source. Darwin reasoned that they shared a common ancestor, and had transformed over time to optimally exploit their local food sources.
He was also aware of how the marsupials of Australia seemed to have the forms and behaviors of the placental mammals, and surmised that these two groups of animals evolved to fill corresponding niches.
Today, we can add ring species, such as the salamanders of California’s central San Joaquin valley that gradually transform as they migrate around some natural barrier. Neighboring variants are still able to mate, but eventually, as the ring closes, the variants on the two ends cannot reproduce and are therefore considered separate species.
Likewise with the Larus gulls of the arctic, who don’t get further north than a certain latitude, and created a similar pattern around the northernmost circle available to them – neighbors are variants that can breed, but by the time the ring was closed, it was now two different species of gulls meeting.
[4] Structural homologies - Darwin pointed out that if all mammals descended from a common ancestor, and if that ancestor had a limb with the same basic arrangement, then it would be logical to observe that its descendants had a modified form of the same arrangement. Darwin was aware that the same bones in the same relative positions occur in primate hands, bat wings, bird wings, which suggested common descent.
[5] Comparative embryology - Darwin was not only aware of the vestigial bones in some adult forms, but their more pronounced appearance in their embryos such as legs on dolphin and snake embryos, and tails and gill folds on human embryos. Today, man has a vestigial tailbone, the coccyx, but as an embryo, he has a full tail.
Based on all of those observations, Darwin suggested that all life descended from a common ancestor in the manner described in the definition of evolution.
Since that time, we have accumulated other kinds of data not available to Darwin.
[6] Evolution has been reproduced in the lab and documented in nature such as fruit flies that have lost the ability to interbreed and became two new species, multiple species of the house mouse unique to the Faeroe Islands occurring within 250 years of introduction of a founder species to the islands, and five new species of cichlid fishes forming in a single lake within 4,000 years of introduction of a parent species.
[7] Genetic evidence - chromosome homologies, common genes, “junk” DNA including endogenous retroviruses, a common genetic code, molecular clock evidence in the DNA which timeline corresponds with fossils and radiometric dating data, and human chromosome 2.
[8] Molecular evidence - common biological pathways such as the (Krebs cycle), common A, B, O blood typing and the Rh factor, the insulin molecule, and the proteins responsible for color vision (same as those found in Old World primates but absent in New World primates and from all other mammals.
[9] Bacteriology, virology, immunology, pest-control - the way that bacteria evolve in response to antibiotics and viruses evolve to require new vaccines
[10] Nested hierarchies in the anatomy, biochemistry, and genetics of living things. We can think of these as nested boxes. Consider a large box containing two or more smaller boxes, each containing two or more even smaller boxes, and so on, until we reach the smallest boxes, each containing an object similar to the object in the adjacent box, and less similar than what is contained in the smallest boxes in the adjacent next to smallest box. The tree of life is organized that way.
Species are the smallest boxes. Similar species are grouped as a genus, the next larger box, and so on up the largest boxes, the various kindoms such as plants, animals, and fungi.Taxonomic groups fit neatly and completely inside other taxonomic groups. All monkeys are mammals, and all mammals are vertebrates. Likewise, all dolphins are also mammals, and thus also vertebrates. But all penguins are birds, and also vertebrates, but not mammals. This is what evolution predicts. The same relationships are seen in the eznymes and other proteins of living things, and in the DNA. Two kinds of monkeys will have more similar chemistry and genetics than a monkey and a dolphin.
[10] The predictive power of the theory and the ability to use it productively in areas such as medicine and agriculture.
At this time, the evidence for evolution is so robust that there can be no other naturalistic explanation for it. If the theory had to be tossed out, all that is left is that a deceptive intelligent designer seeded the earth with fossils in strata and arranged the DNA of all living things to make it appear that evolution had occurred.
“Consilience” is the word used to refer to multiple independent avenues all pointing to the same conclusion. That is, when multiple sources of evidence are in agreement, the conclusion can be very strong even when none of the individual sources of evidence is significantly so on its own.
For example, it should not matter whether one measures the distance between two points by satellite imaging, by laser rangefinding, or using a yardstick - in all three cases, the answer should be approximately the same. And if that happens, we can be confident in that answer. Evolutionary theory enjoys that status.
You are talking about details, not the theory itself, which has no verifiable foundation.
