Jonathan Wells Talks About Sequence Conservation

Paul McBride (paulmc) tried to convince the readers on Uncommon Descent that there was evidence for junk DNA. One of the lines of evidence has to do with sequence conservation. If most of the genome sequences are not conserved between species this strongly suggests that they have no function, although it doesn't rule out a function that is independent of sequence.

Wells addresses this argument in: Jonathan Wells on Darwinism, Science, and Junk DNA. Before analyzing his response, it's worth reviewing what he wrote in The Myth of Junk DNA.

In chapter 5, Wells talks about sequence conservation as evidence of function—specifically the fact that the sequences of some potential pseudogenes are more conserved that would be expected if they were really pseudogenes [Junk & Jonathan: Part 8—Chapter 5]. That's an important argument and, if true, it would point to a function. The irony is that Wells doesn't believe in common descent so, from his perspective, these are not conserved sequences due to negative natural selection. Nevertheless, he is happy to use evolutionary arguments whenever it suits him.

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