Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!hes
From: hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: counterexamples to creationism
Summary: Raphanobrassica - a new species
Keywords: speciation, creationism
Message-ID: <4533@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 88 04:52:01 GMT
References: <1651@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Organization: NC State Univ.
Lines: 29

In article <1651@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>, jack@cs.hw.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
> Most creationists love to say that nobody has ever observed a new species
> being created. I know this is wrong but I couldn't actually cite a specific
> counterexample. Bacteria must be easy; I vaguely remember reading about
> a new species of mosquito. I suppose something warm and fluffy might be too
> much to ask for, but can someone post some examples of observed speciation
> in reasonably complex life forms?
> -- 
> ARPA: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
> JANET:jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs       USENET: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack
> Mail: Jack Campin, Computing Science Department, University of Glasgow,
>       17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland (041 339 8855 x 6045)


Look it up in a genetics or botany text.  (I discussed it at length a couple
of years ago - I'll look to see if I still have something on it.)

Briefly - in an attempt to get a plant which had raddish root and a cabbage
head, the two were crossed (genera are Raphanus and Brassica) - after the
chromosomes of the (sterile) hybrid were doubled - there was a self-fertile
plant which could not breed with either the raddish or cabbage parental
species.

Does this count?

--henry schaffer  n c state univ

P.S.  It doesn't pay to fool around with Mother Nature - Raphanobrassica
has a cabbage root and a raddish top!