Good News For Devils!

Not so good for creationists.  For years now Tasmanian devils have been afflicted with a highly lethal and contagious form of cancer (devil facial tumor disease or DFTD) that is almost 100% fatal.

Tasmanian devils are the largest carnivorous marsupials in the world. They display significant aggression toward one another, which often involves biting on the face. This sometimes transmits DFTD, one of only three known forms of contagious cancer.

Twenty years since its discovery, DFTD has wiped out an estimated 80 percent of devils in Tasmania, the only place in the world where the animals live.

Now a Washington State University researcher, Andrew Storfer, and an international team of scientists have  discovered that two regions in the genomes of Australia's iconic marsupials are changing in response to the disease.

It was expected that by now there would be no more devils in the wild, but they have survived.

The reasons is simple evolution.  "If a disease comes in and knocks out 90 percent of the individuals, you might predict the 10 percent who survive are somehow genetically different," said study co-author Paul Hohenlohe, assistant professor of biology at the University of Idaho.

The theory (REMEMBER! A scientific theory is the best explanation for what has been observed and tested successfully.) of evolution states that those who can survive changes in the environment because of genetic variation will have offspring that can also survive. 

In other words, here is an example of evolution at work in the modern world.  Sorry, reality-deniers.

For more information, see https://news.wsu.edu/2016/08/30/tasmanian-devils-evolve-resist-deadly-cancer/