Old Rocks
Diamond Member
I believe that he is referring to the line of primates, of which we are part.Unfortunately, that article a fatal misunderstanding of how evolution functions.
Genetic mutation doesn't happen to adapt fitness to the environment. Genetic mutations are unrelated to the suitability of the organism to survive. Genes have no way of perceiving the requirements of survival in the environment. Genetic mutations are spontaneous and random and are mostly inconsequential to the organism, frequently harmful, and only occasionally useful in adaptability to the environment. When a mutation is useful, that increases the likelihood of it being passed on to future generations.
The experiment proves that organisms mutate and that those mutations are passed on. It would be highly unlikely for a major adaptive change to occur -- particularly in the closed and controlled environment of the experiment -- in as few as 70,000 generations. Human evolution happened over 85 million years or 6.5 million generations.
Everything you say is quite right, except that last part. Hominids first appeared about 6 million years ago. Bipeds about 4 million years ago and genus Homo about 2 million years ago, so there was about a 2 million year stretch between each major development; assuming 20 years per generation, that is about 100,000 generations. But your point is valid: removed from the process of natural selection, where accidentally beneficial mutations give rise to better adaptation to an ever-changing environment, the study means little in and by itself.