Researchers from the Australian National University have discovered that the Y chromosome is shrinking as it loses genetic material but Paul Waters said men were not at risk of becoming extinct...
Dr Waters said the genetic material retained on the marsupials' Y chromosome had been lost in placental mammals such as humans, indicating different rates of gene loss across species.
''That was completely unexpected,'' he said.
The thrust of the article is on what this means to men. I think this overlooks the more important point, which is that our genes are shrinking as they lose genetic material. This occurs across species, so it's not just a human thing. What this means, though, is that genetic loss is more rapid than the gaining of new genetic information.
This is the opposite of evolution.
And it necessitates the question: if genetic loss is more rapid than the gaining of new genes, how do we have so many genes in the first place?
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