What is the strongest proof of evolution you know ?

Question

those little vampire birds living in galapagos islands impressed me a lot. (http://www.junglephotos.com/galapagos/gbirds/seabirds/seabirds.shtml)

what about you ?

Answer 1

My appendix ruptured when I was three, I had my wisdom teeth removed several years ago, and I have bad knees.  Human bodies are pretty poorly designed and have lots of features that don't work in modern bodies and may even kill you, like appendices.  Wisdom teeth, for instance, were useful back in the day when we had much bigger jaws.  Nowadays, our jaws are too small to accommodate the extra teeth, and modern humans often have surgery to remove them.  Since it doesn't kill us often enough to get rid of the genes responsible for their growth, we're stuck with wisdom teeth.  If we were actually designed, then whoever did it did a p!ss-poor job.

Answer 2

Old Bones.

Answer 3

Oldavai Gorge included discovery of Zinjanthropus later eventually named Paranthropus Boisei was an interesting side branch in primate evolution.  For me, the best evidence is in the DNA.  You can measure how closely an animal is related to humans.  For example, you can calculate that Chimps are humans closest relatives based on DNA which changes at a relatively steady rate (mitochondria DNA).  Common sense also would suggest Chimps are our closest relatives.  DNA confirms the relationships that others previously deduced from fossil records and by comparing common characteristics.

Answer 4

Oh, there are so many pieces of evidence for evolution and speciation (so called macro-evolution, in the guy above's newspeak) I like the drosophillia ones, because back in the dark ages we still bred fruit flies in the genetics lab...

Here are more cases of observed speciation:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-spec...

Answer 5

Don't know of any real strong proof of evolution. At least not macro evolution

Answer 6

bacteria. in order to "see" evolution we need an organism that can multiply rapidly to produce several generations. in bacteria, they multiply very quickly. a simple experiment shows evolution. let's say the particular strain of bacteria you're using can be killed by chemical X. most times, at least one colony of bacteria will be resistant to being killed by chemical X. that's a mutation. and after several mutations you have evolution.

you can see this in real-world applications like drug-resistant tuberculosis.

of course there are several examples of much more interesting organisms, but I think that bacteria is such great proof because you can actually see it happen before your eyes.

Answer 7

Earth's oxidising atmosphere (19% oxygen). We live on the only planet with a high oxygen content, yet experiments and theory, together with all the other solar and extrasolar planets observed so far, show that it is unique, and life could not have evolved with such an atmosphere, so it must have evolved in a "reducing" type of atmosphere, with no free oxygen, and it was only when life became complex enough to accidentally develop photosynthesis, that the oxygen production was started. This is supported by the layers of "banded iron", in the geological record at many places on the Earth's surface. The buildup of oxygen eventually reached the point, not only in the atmosphere, but also in the oceans, that iron could no longer remain in solution, precipitating out, to form those worldwide oxidised iron banded formations. So life forms evolve, changing over time.

Answer 8

Discoveries at the Olduvai Gorge.

Answer 9

i would say the human sampien sapien, your present day human, it is the most studied and the most evolved