Buratovich, Michael. “Leaving the Fold: Darwin’s Doubt and the Evolution of Protein Folds.” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 35, no. 5 (2015).
Abstract: In an earlier article (Buratovich 2015), I examined one of the main arguments promulgated by Discovery Institute philosopher of science, Stephen Meyer, in his book Darwin’s Doubt (2013). Meyer maintains that the rapid diversification of animal life during the Cambrian “explosion” required the swift evolution of new genes that provided animals with the genetic information needed to form new cell types. In that article, I showed that not only does the fossil record show evidence of complex multicellular life well before the Cambrian explosion, but also sequenced genomes of modern sponges and cnidarians (corals, Hydra, and sea anemones) possess the genes necessary to build more complex animals, strongly suggesting that the ancestors of these creatures had all the genes necessary for the Cambrian explosion. Thus, it can be concluded that the increase in novel animal forms was due to innovative regulation of these genes during animal development rather than the evolution of new genes themselves.
