A naive question? Shared ancestry explains an enormous number of things in biology. I think other explanations inadequate.But scientists should always keep an open mind to NEW ideas. Recycling of fairy tails and conspiracy theories is of no scientific consequence.

Hello Asif; The simplest example of the demonstrated connection between genetic relationships and shared ancestry is antibiotic or pesticide resistance. The resistant strain of E. coli and the sensitive one are demonstrably related to each other as are the resistant and sensitive strains of Johnson Grass. Real-world examples can be found among host-specific parasites. Peter and Rosemary Grant have studied the Galapagos Finches for many years and have documented the emergence of differentiated populations on the various islands during the time of their own studies. Read some of their stuff. Dolph Schluter and his colleagues demonstrated similar differentiation of Stickleback fishes in streams and lakes of western Canada. Those studies clearly demonstrate shared ancestry. Look up this title, "Widespread Parallel Evolution in Sticklebacks by Repeated Fixation of Ectodysplasin Alleles".

The author of your quote is either unfamiliar with a large, easily accessible literature or the person is a creationist. Google Scholar will provide a nice starter in the lit. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers

James Des Lauriers Rob David Smissen

Thank you for your responses. I think this question caught me a little off guard and I was struggling to make heads or tails of it. Think its taken me sometime to fully digest what the author was trying to get at. Since then I've looked at their quora post history and it would appear that they believe evolutionary biology is a conspiracy hatched by biologists hinging on dubious evidence and conjecture.

I think the tell tale sign should have been the superfluous paragraphs of waffle with a paucity of citations.

I would politely ask the person who made the statement to clarify his answer.

Patrice Showers Corneli I've started writing a response back to them about four times and then lose the will to do so. Its quite clear they believe that evolutionary theory is some sort of mass conspiracy theory

Hello Asif; If you intend to reply, think carefully about what your goal is. I used to engage in exchanges like the one you anticipate. I mistakenly thought that if I could explain some aspect of evolutionary theory or some particular data set, then I could help the person understand the general idea. That doesn't seem to be true. The issue is an ideological one, not a lack of information. Some years ago I wrote an essay intended to help science teachers with exactly this problem. Its title is "The Creation/Evolution Dispute: a Teacher's Handbook". Look it up on ResearchGate. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers