This is a tale about Darwinian Evolution in action. As you will see, there is a long road ahead for Evolution to create a new species. So imagine that a red deer passed through toxic Chernobyl last year. As it passed through the area, the radiation still lingering after the nuclear accident, altered its cells. But little did this deer know, it would be the beginning of a long group of happy coincidences, which could one day culminate in improving, or even changing entirely, the whole species of red deer.
Unlike somatic cells (trillions present in each body), reproductive cells (sperm and eggs) are capable of passing on mutations to the next generation. And this red deer was lucky enough to experience a mutation in its sperm, as it was strolling through Chernobyl. The vast majority of all mutations are repaired by the cell, but this one was not repaired. Although radiation usually produces cancer and other deadly illnesses, this deer acquired a beneficial (positive) mutation for X-ray vision for its potential descendants. Through its sperm the beneficial mutation could pass on its X-ray vision genes to its offspring in a one in many trillions chance. This was one lucky deer.
All this deer had to do now was to survive the wolf packs until the rut (mating season) and find a suitable female to breed with. Unfortunately, it was not a dominant stag (male red deer), so natural selection was not on his side this time. But against all odds, it survived until the rut, caught a break without battling any aggressive stag, and scored with a cute hind (female red deer). Happily for this red deer, she wanted something other than the biggest and most dominant stag. Therefore, its mutated sperm fertilized a couple of eggs of the hind.
Although many millions of sperm cells are released during each insemination, only a few usually fertilize the eggs, but incredibly the sperm cells with the advantageous modifications were the ones that fertilized the eggs. This fertilization process also included going through a mechanism called meiosis. During meiosis, sections of both parents’ chromosomes are combined, making new chromosomes that may, or may not, include anyone of the parents’ traits. So there was the risk of its beneficial mutation not being passed on to its progeny. For instance, through meiosis, a human being only gets 50% DNA from each parent, between 18 and 32% from each grandparent (with an average of 25% DNA), but as little as 4% of any of his great grandparent’s DNA, and by the 6th generation less than 2% DNA. Not very good odds over time to pass on an advantageous mutation.
Even if a beneficial mutation becomes part of a new living organism, this must still survive long enough to grow up and reproduce to spread the beneficial gene onto the next generations; otherwise, it does not get added to the gene pool of the species. But in this case, the X-ray vision modification from the red deer was included in both zygotes (fertilized eggs), so its progeny were in luck this time. Now, this red deer was greatly beating the odds passing its special genes on to the next generation.
Unfortunately, the deer also used all of its X-ray vision-modified sperm on that hind, and its new sperm did not carry any modifications anymore. Its contributions to a better deer species were over. The better future for its species is now dependent on the hind’s survival and its offspring’s success. Fawn survival rate has been estimated between 20 and 58 percent, depending on depredation. And there are other killer factors also involved, like birth defects, disease, climate, and nutrition.
But the pregnant hind survives long enough to deliver 2 beautiful fawns with X-ray vision. Despite this being a first-time mother, she was doing a great job raising her progeny. The fawns were very healthy and used their special vision to see inside and behind things. They could also see camouflaged animals at a great distance, which helped them avoid surprises and ambushes by predators. That was a real advantage over all the other fawns. But what they did not see coming was winter. The harshest winter in a decade. Unfortunately, the beneficial mutation was not an extra hair coat so one of the fawns did not survive that first winter.
Luckily, the other fawn did survive the cold, although barely. Since it has survived this far, we are going to call him Bambi from now on. Suddenly, Bambi had become the last hope for his species to acquire X-ray vision. He had to survive. After the harsh winter, a warm spring came that allowed him to recover and grow. Bambi eventually left his mother, became a yearling, and started growing antlers. Bambi survived disease and many other challenges until he became an adult with full-grown antlers.
Finally, Bambi became an adult of reproductive age; his time had come to mate and pass his genes on to the next generation. So Bambi challenges a very powerful stag for mating rights, gets stabbed, and dies in the attempt. But Bambi still must call himself a very lucky deer. That is because he endured so many adversities and challenges and survived them all, except for the last one.
First, Bambi was the result of a beneficial mutation in his father’s sperm, and although most mutations are repaired by the cell, this one was not. Then, it turned out to be a beneficial mutation, whereas most are not. Next during meiosis, the beneficial trait was selected, although it could not have been. After that, Bambi survived gestation, birth, development, illnesses, the environment, depredation, and many other adverse circumstances until he reached reproductive age. Not so easy to achieve. The likelihood of all of these nice coincidences to occur, including a beneficial mutation, are added together and are equivalent to one in so many trillions probability. Although deer in captivity can easily live for over a decade, in the wild their average lifespan can be significantly lower.
But assuming that Bambi had successfully mated, his sperm still had to go through a process of meiosis also, where his special vision gene could have been bypassed, and his potential progeny still had to survive gestation, birth, illness, depredation, environmental factors, and many other situations until his progeny reached reproductive age, and the spreading of their special vision trait in the gene pool. All these additional happy coincidences make the probability of this happening even more remote.
One beneficial mutation alone is not enough to create any new species. Many, many beneficial, positive mutations like that one would be required to significantly change the genetic makeup of the red deer species. If you paid attention to this tale, the challenges and difficulties make the whole scenario simply impossible. But some optimist evolutionists assure us that this is exactly what happened. From bacteria to human beings in a few billion years. Really …? Human beings are gullible indeed.
There are so many factors determining the death or survival of any organism and the transmission of any beneficial modification (mutation) to the next generation. It takes much more than the natural selection of advantageous characteristics to create a whole new species. Welcome to descent with modification, natural selection in action, and the fallacy of the main parameter of Darwinian Evolution.
P.S. The death of Bambi actually is good news. Had all the red deer acquired X-ray vision, they would have been able to survive predators in much greater numbers. Therefore, many more predators could have starved, and maybe even the whole predator species could have disappeared. So the deer population would have exploded then, and with so many mouths to feed, they would have collapsed their ecosystem. Many of them would probably have starved as a consequence then, plus many other species would also have been negatively impacted. Something comparable already occurred in Yellowstone National Park with the disappearance of the wolves and their reintroduction.