Where Evolution falls short - Please read first post

[TF.]

I'd be quite happy to argue with Blu, or anyone else. I'd reply to the OP but Current and the others have already blitzed that pretty well. I don't think there's even one point left that hasn't been torn apart.

[Blu]

I think a debate between me and TF would be fun =)

[TF.]

Just like a battle between Gary's Umbreon and Bugsy's Scyther. Epic epicness! [/yet another attempted pokemon derail]

[Current]

Oh yeah, Blu vs. TF should be fun to watch. This must happen.

watch me skilfully dodge the Pokemon derail

[TF.]

Bring it on, Blu.

Bonesaw is READY.

[Tobias_Marco]

<Male swans are the only birds with penises, and the praying mantis is the only insect that can't turn it's head.>
<Why is that?>

[Current]

As for swans, it isn't. Ducks, geese, ostriches, emus, flamingoes, kiwis and tinamous all have penises. There might be others, those are just the ones a quick search revealed (though I already knew about ducks).

Regarding the mantis, I'm somewhat suspicious, but regardless. Assuming it is true, it'd probably be because whatever mutation that rendered the mantis unable to turn its head occurred after it split from its closest evolutionary relative.

Why is this relevant to the discussion?

[Blu]

Current is correct. After reading up I found out that birds of the superorder Palaeognathae all have penises. Within the superorder Neognathae those are birds with and without penises. Flamingoes and birds of the order Anseriforme (Swans included) also have penises. Other birds lack teh penis.

Using phylogentics, we can put the bird orders on an evolutionary tree. After plotting this tree, we can see where the evolutionary change must have taken place by plotting them down, as shown on the graph I drew below.

001.jpg

As you can see, modern birds are split into two superorders, Palaeognathae and Neognathae, which likely had a commone ancestor. All Palaeognathae have no penis. We can therefore say that the lack of a penis came about on the neognathae side. According to modern data, the lack of a penis appears to have evolved twice, as at least two orders of birds within the Neognathae superorder still have a penis present (including swans).

Question answered. Same idea applies to the mantis. Again, I don't see how pointing out difference in species disproves evolution, seeing as this is exactly what evolution predicts.

[Tobias_Marco]

<It seems that in this case my information is not as good as I thought it was.>
<You win this round. However I think I am going to win the next round.>
<The reason that I thought it was relevant had to do with the idea that you think that birds came from dinosaurs, I know that reptiles do have penises, if reptiles have penises and birds don't then why is that?>
<If no birds have penises, except swans, then why did the penis come back in the swans?>
<It seems to me that the penis is very complicated, not as complicated as the eyeball maybe, but it seems odd to me that the eye would just evolve all at once.>
<Why is it that we don't have evidence of a creature with only half an eye formed?>
<It would serve no useful purpose, but after many mutations it would become a very useful part indeed.>
<Why did one insect lose this very useful ability to turn his/her head?>

[Current]

A quick googling told me you got it backwards. The mantis is the only insect that can turn its head, or so they say. Not sure if they are the only one, but at any rate they can, see here.

As for the evolution of the eye, it's been studied extensively since Darwin himself. The eye didn't evolve all at once, it went through several stages starting as a simple photosensitive cell. Here.