Gene Expression Differences Between the Zebrafish and Sea Squirt

The zebrafish and the sea squirt, for all of their differences, share a common development stage. At an analogous development stage the two species share a tadpole larval body plan. But new research shows some surprising differences in the gene expression at this stage.

Regulatory proteins influence form, so evolutionists expect to find conserved gene expression of regulatory proteins at this conserved development stage. But this was not found. In fact, the expression of regulatory genes was no more conserved than other genes, in spite of the evolutionary expectation. As evolutionists admitted, the finding is “particularly puzzling.”

Embryonic development was an area of evidence Darwin thought substantially supported his theory. But myriad problems have been found. Evolution is not supported by all biological evidence, as is so often claimed. Indeed, much of the evidence is downright puzzling. In this case, what we must believe is that while these separate lineages evolved, they maintained this development stage while the expression of the relevant regulatory genes diverged. It is yet another false evolutionary expectation explained away with just-so, “gee isn’t evolution clever,” stories. How curious.