Speciation and Polyploidy in Animals

This is another post that links to an article that is intended for people with a good working knowledge of biology. Most cells are diploid, meaning the cells have two sets of chromosomes. When an organism or cell has more than two sets of chromosomes, you have polypolidy. An earlier post discussed plant polyploidy. Now we are going to take a look at it in animals.

African banded barb image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Citron

Polyploidy has not received as much study as other areas, but it is known to be more common in plants than animals. What is known so far is that polyploidy in animals is rare, and often fatal. Get some biologists discussing whether or not the changes are harmful, beneficial, or neutral, and you may have an entertaining dustup. The mysteries of polyploidy are not helped when researchers are intellectually dishonest and make assumptions, but some research on various critters has been interesting.

When polyploidy leads to speciation, it happens very quickly, but does not add new genetic information. It may come as a surprise, but not only is polyploidy unhelpful to Darwinists, but it is consistent in a biblical creationist worldview.

Animal polyploidy does exist, though it appears to be far less common than it is in plants. As in plants, polyploidy arises as a reproductive mistake. During sexual reproduction, two diploid parents exchange genetic information. If one of their gametes produces diploid instead of the usual haploid, there is a chance that gamete will lead to a polyploid offspring. If the diploid gamete combines with the other parent’s normal haploid gamete, a triploid offspring will result. This offspring will likely be reproductively isolated. This process occurs infrequently, but it does happen.

To read and consider the entire article, click on "Animal Polyploidy: A Mechanism for Evolution?"

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