The Mystery of Evolution: One Down

My kids just informed me that they have seen an okapi evolving, or transitioning into a zebra

Okapi’s stripes appear to be no doubt the same as zebra’s…

Zebra, Equus quagga, Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya : Stock Photo

Well, at least we have one example of species transitioning into another…out of 10 billion and this one looks like a stunner….

I have to run!

I’ll fill in the rest when I get back…

Update!

It turns out that okapi is considered to be more closely related to giraffe than to zebra…if at all…That is surprising…because okapi and zebra do look alike just okapi is missing some stripes…No wonder my kids fell for it…as did some experts…

“…The okapi and the giraffe were assigned to the same order (Artiodactyla) because they both have cloven hooves, and to the same family (Giraffidae) because they share certain distinctive features: Both have large eyes and ears, thin lips and a long, extensible tongue that allows them to lick their entire face (even the ears); their backs slope upward from rump to withers; they also share the same dental formula: ( i 0/3, c 0/1, pm 3/3, m 3/3) × 3 = 32. Both, unlike any other mammal, have molars with rugose enamel and bony horns that remain covered with skin throughout life (Nowak 1999, vol. 2, p. 1085).

Yet the rump and legs of an okapi are covered with black-and-white stripes exactly like those of a zebra. Perhaps, then, if okapis had solid hooves instead of cloven ones, they would be classified as perissodactyls (Order Perissodactyla) and would be considered more closely related to zebras than to giraffes. An okapi is about the same size as a Burchell’s zebra.

The chromosome count of an okapi is also like that of a zebra, to which it is not supposed to be related, and unlike that of a giraffe. Giraffes have 30 chromosomes (Taylor et al. 1967; Hösli and Lang 1970; Koulisher et al. 1971), whereas okapis have a variable chromosome number of 44-46, depending on the animal in question; most seem to have 2n = 45 (Ulbrich and Schmitt 1969; Hösli and Lang 1970; Koulisher 1978). The chromosome number of Grevy’s zebra is 2n = 46 and plains zebras have 2n = 44 (Benirschke and Malouf 1967). Variation in chromosome count is itself unusual among mammals, but common in hybrids…”

The 14-16 chromosome difference between giraffe and okapi is striking isn’t it?

117 thoughts on “The Mystery of Evolution: One Down

  1. John, you posting that the modern synthesis is nothing more than population genetics is an abuse of posting privileges. Yet no one stopped you.

  2. Yes, and an otter could be something like a mink in the midst of evolving into an aquatic mammal. And beavers might be in the midst of evolving into an aquatic mammal. Flying squirrels might be in the midst of evolving from squirrel to flying mammal.

  3. Walter Kloover:
    Yes, and an otter could be something like a mink in the midst of evolving into an aquatic mammal. And beavers might be in the midst of evolving into an aquatic mammal. Flying squirrels might be in the midst of evolving from squirrel to flying mammal.

    What’s your evidence? How do you know it’s not the other way around?
    I mean, no one here probably has any doubts, without looking at their sequenced genomes, that okapi is transitioning into a zebra…and zebra is not transitioning into okapi…

    It is clearly visible…My kids noticed it…

    What’s your evidence?

  4. Mung:
    John, you posting that the modern synthesis is nothing more than population genetics is an abuse of posting privileges. Yet no one stopped you.

    Nobody questions it because it is for a good cause…even if it is another example of Harshman’s miraclevolution …;-)

  5. dazz:
    extant species don’t transition into extant species. let your kids know that

    That’s not what you said!!!

    I asked you specifically how many species out of 10 billion on earth were evolving and transitioning into other species and you said:

    “ALL OF THEM”

    Not only that, Joe Felsenstein confirmed it by saying ” I agree with dazz. All of them.”

    Do you need a link to the thread amigo???

  6. J-Mac: That’s not what you said!!!

    I asked you specifically how many species out of 10 billion on earth were evolving and transitioning into other species and you said:

    “ALL OF THEM”

    Not only that, Joe Felsenstein confirmed it by saying ” I agree with dazz. All of them.”

    Do you need a link to the thread amigo???

    All extant species are evolving into future species

  7. dazz,

    All extant species are evolving into future species

    Except for the ones that are going extinct.

  8. dazz: All extant species are evolving into future species

    O’RLY???

    Just tell us mr. science, what future species is okapi evolving into with his ass full of zebra stripes, if it is not evolving into a zebra?
    My kids would like to know that…

    I’m also all ears…

  9. keiths:
    dazz,

    Except for the ones that are going extinct.

    Here is the first exception to the rule…Will there be more?
    Write them now, so that you don’t have any excuses later…

  10. J-Mac: I’m also all ears…

    An obviously beneficial adaptation. Can you post a picture of you evolving to be all ears?

  11. dazz: All extant species are evolving into future species

    So now you are denying what you had said earlier and what Joe Felsenstein confirmed That ALL 10 billion species on earth are evolving and transitioning? Please say you weren’t lying for Darwin…

    You and Joe too…

  12. dazz:

    Let’s keep it simple, will you? (wink wink nudge nudge)

    Oops. Right. J-Mac is in the audience, isn’t he? Sorry.

  13. J-Mac: O’RLY???

    Just tell us mr. science, what future species is okapi evolving into with his ass full of zebra stripes, if it is not evolving into a zebra?
    My kids would like to know that…

    I’m also all ears…

    Okapi are a close relative to zebra, that’s why they look alike, they’re not evolving into one another. Please give your kids a proper education, no homeschooling and shit

  14. Mung: An obviously beneficial adaptation. Can you post a picture of you evolving to be all ears?

    What is beneficial adaption in this case?

    I can even claim that my ass is evolving into ears… 🙂

  15. J-Mac: So now you are denying what you had said earlier and what Joe Felsenstein confirmed That ALL 10 billion species on earth are evolving and transitioning? Please say you weren’t lying for Darwin…

    You and Joe too…

    no, you asked how many of all existing species were in the process of becoming some other species, right? the answer is ALL OF THEM

  16. dazz: Okapi are a close relative to zebra, that’s why they look alike, they’re not evolving into one another.

    Okapi are a close relative to zebra because they look alike. Yet other organisms that look alike are not close relatives. When will this sink in to evolutionists?

    And there’s no evolutionary reason that Okapi cannot evolve into Zebra or vice versa. It’s all story-telling and myth-making. It isn’t science.

  17. dazz: Okapi are a close relative to zebra, that’s why they look alike, they’re not evolving into one another. Please give your kids a proper education, no homeschooling and shit

    So, zebra evolved full stripes for camouflage (full undercover) or something whatever Darwinists claim and okapi evolved partial camouflage because??? It’s not under full cover?

  18. At one time I thought keiths was evolving into a whale, but then someone told me that being blowhard didn’t require having a blowhole.

  19. Meet the rarely seen rainforest animal with the stripes of a zebra, the body of a horse and the head of a giraffe.

    Exactly what evolution would predict. IDiots!

  20. Then again, I noticed those ears. It could be a case of convergent evolution, as it is becoming an elephant.

  21. dazz: Okapi are a close relative to zebra, that’s why they look alike, they’re not evolving into one another. Please give your kids a proper education, no homeschooling and shit

    Okapi are artiodactyls, zebra are perissodactyls. That would seem to me to be stretching the bounds of “close relative” beyond recognition. They’re both laurasiatherians, but so are cats and hedgehogs, and would you call them close relatives to okapi or zebra?

  22. J-Mac: So…okapi is not an existing species…I think I understand…

    Okapi are NOT evolving into zebras, and zebras are NOT evolving int okapi, they simply share a close common ancestor, capisco?

  23. Mung:
    Meet the rarely seen rainforest animal with the stripes of a zebra, the body of a horse and the head of a giraffe.

    Exactly what evolution would predict. IDiots!

    Lol! You should have been a comedian Mung…lol

  24. dazz: Okapi are NOT evolving into zebras, and zebras are NOT evolving int okapi, they simply share a close common ancestor, capisco?

    That is not what you said!!! You said ALL and now you are paddling it back… So…why should I listen to you? You either didn’t know or you lied about the fundamental thing what TSZ is all about…or supposed to be… you and Joe Felsenstein…

  25. phoodoo: Then again, I noticed those ears. It could be a case of convergent evolution, as it is becoming an elephant.

    How on earth did I miss that? And that nose! Proboscis Potentialis!

  26. GlenDavidson: Nothing like his own education, IOW, whatever that was.

    This is the same GlenDavidson who declared that no extant species on earth today survived from the Cambrian till now. He has objective empirical evidence for that claim. Or he’s just making shit up.

  27. John Harshman: Okapi are artiodactyls, zebra are perissodactyls. That would seem to me to be stretching the bounds of “close relative” beyond recognition. They’re both laurasiatherians, but so are cats and hedgehogs, and would you call them close relatives to okapi or zebra?

    You know full well Darwin would agree with me, you heretic systematic scientificologist

  28. John Harshman: Okapi are artiodactyls, zebra are perissodactyls. That would seem to me to be stretching the bounds of “close relative” beyond recognition. They’re both laurasiatherians, but so are cats and hedgehogs, and would you call them close relatives to okapi or zebra?

    What’s the miraclevolver doing here commenting on the OP he said was the abuse of posting privileges?
    Is he trying to tell us that the gene (s) for stripes was miraculously inserted in the the tree of life of an animal that is not that closely related to zebra?

  29. dazz: You know full well Darwin would agree with me, you heretic systematic scientificologist

    To the extent which a dead man can agree with anything, sure …

    🙂

  30. J-Mac: Lol! You should have been a comedian Mung…lol

    I’m evolving into one as we speak. And a lawyer. A comedian-lawyer.

  31. My point was that okapis don’t evolve into zebras and vice versa, can I crawl back to my shame hole now? jeez

  32. Mung: To the extent which a dead man can agree with anything, sure …

    And yet he continues to say ALL existent (Spanish existente) species evolve, transition…

  33. dazz: My point was that okapis don’t evolve into zebras and vice versa, can I crawl back to my shame hole now?

    Some people lack a shame hole entirely. They are considered abnormal. But maybe they just haven’t evolved one yet. 🙂

  34. John Harshman: They’re both laurasiatherians, but so are cats

    Oh shoot Mung, its probably just a cat after all. We had a black and white striped cat.

    They may have something with this nested hierarchy business. How to be wrong!

    If Okapi are really just close relatives of cats, that would explain why our cat always used to try to kick us with its back hoof.

  35. dazz:
    My point was that okapis don’t evolve into zebras and vice versa, can I crawl back to my shame hole now? jeez

    Yes…we ALL understand…
    It was a set up…John Miraclevolver blew my cover but the damage is done…I had told you I had something up my sleeve…
    You fell for it and some others too …

    Joe Felsenstein still owns an explanation…

  36. Mung: Some people lack a shame hole entirely. They are considered abnormal. But maybe they just haven’t evolved one yet.

    I wonder who that might be? 😉
    Mung, can you tell’m? I have no heart…

  37. phoodoo: Oh shoot Mung, its probably just a cat after all.

    Does it like fish? Can it lick its balls?

    Thank God though for the twin nested hierarchy! Else we might never know what it is.

  38. Mung: Some people lack a shame hole entirely. They are considered abnormal. But maybe they just haven’t evolved one yet.

    Just googled it and I’m still not sure how bad I screwed up there, LMFAO
    But hey, I’ll get lost in translation every once in a while, don’t mind being mocked for that

  39. J-Mac: Yes…we ALL understand…
    It was a set up…John Miraclevolver blew my cover but the damage is done…I had told you I had something up my sleeve…
    You fell for it and some others too …

    Joe Felsenstein still owns an explanation…

    I’m sorry, but that’s sort of pathetic. Okapis are currently evolving. So are Zebras. What’s the point of this?

  40. dazz: I’m sorry, but that’s sort of pathetic. Okapi are currently evolving. So are Zebras. What’s the point of this?

    It’s like you said…It’s pathetic…
    I’m not really into making people look pathetic…but sometimes they fall into a trap…

    I’ve learned it from a friend who is psychiatrist who learned some tricks from Columbo…lol

Leave a Reply