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Gene Duplication

Modern biology has recognized that the sequences and structures of some proteins are quite similar to others (an example is hemoglobin vs. myoglobin), and this similarity is normally interpreted in terms of duplication and divergence of an ancestral gene. Many proteins in complicated pathways, such as the blood clotting cascade, are also similar to other proteins, consistent with the idea that they descended from a relatively few ancestor proteins. Gene duplication is often taken as sufficient evidence of the Darwinian mechanism. However, gene duplication is not a Darwinian explanation because duplication points only to common descent, not to the mechanism of evolution.

*This entry taken from: Michael Behe's A Response to Critics of Darwin's Black Box

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