Expert: Walter Hintz - 2/22/2010

Question
Mr. Hintz,

I know we have had this conversation before and this is probably a stupid question, but, I was wondering if blind cave fish are an example of use and disuse. If not what exactly does this say? Thanks!

Mark

Answer
There are no stupid questions
We have to ask ourselves why don't these fish have eyes.
The easy answer is "because eyes are necessary to detect light and there is no light so they do not need eyes"
 The ancestors of these fish had eyes so what happened. Natural selection tells us that in the cave eyes are at a disadvantage and the absence of eyes is advantageous. It also tells us that the change occurred through mutation and macroevolution takes a long time. Certainly a "No Eye" Gene did not suddenly pop up.
In my mind there is more to Natural selection then meets the eye (no pun intended)
walter