# Change in species
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 10, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282 "2026-08-10T21:16:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/1 "2026-08-10T21:16:45Z")
The irony is sublime.
Right off the bat it tells us that real world “natural selection” is based on behavior and every experiment and observation confirm this. Ancient people didn’t take “wolfpups” to create a new species. They selected wolves that acted more like dogs. The selected oddballs that were much less aggressive and much more curious and they bred these and got not wolf pups, they got dogs. Every observation and experiment in every domain says point blank Darwin was wrong. Speciation is a sudden process caused by oddballs surviving a bottleneck. This is just a tiny sample of how wrong we are.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/2 "2026-08-10T21:25:26Z")
Interesting…
Tell me, where did we get chickens?
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### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/3 "2026-08-10T21:27:09Z")
> [@Locrian](#):
>
> Tell me, where did we get chickens?
Eggs! Specifically chicken eggs.
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### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/4 "2026-08-10T21:31:36Z")
Nah. Right off the bat you are incorrect.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/5 "2026-08-10T21:32:24Z")
Guys, before taking time to respond, keep this in mind.
[ ](https://i.ibb.co/LDvggNWq/its-hard-to-win-an-argument-with-a-smart-person-but-its-v0-xto-Pq-FFToq25-AWCSZNop5y-5rx-FA69-BOK9zbq.jpg)
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### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/6 "2026-08-10T21:43:53Z")
The only arguments I’ve ever won is by wearing down my opponent to the point they agree to shut me up. I believe I have a far better track record winning arguments than most people.
Murray is a pretty sharp cookie but he’s not correct here.
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/7 "2026-08-10T21:47:14Z")
Darwin was right. Natural selection is real and it is still happening in the wild. What you are referring to with regard to wolves isn’t natural selection, it’s artificial selection or selective breeding. Plants, microbes, and animals were evolving on their own long before humans ever came around.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/8 "2026-08-10T21:47:35Z")
> [@cladking](#):
>
> The only arguments I’ve ever won is by wearing down my opponent to the point they agree to shut me up.
I don’t know your posting history, but man, that is not the own you think it is.
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### Author:  [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/9 "2026-08-10T21:48:39Z")
> [@cladking](#):
>
> Murray is a pretty sharp cookie but he’s not correct here.
Textbook Dunning-Kruger effect.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/10 "2026-08-10T21:49:57Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> I don’t know your posting history
Most of it is in a single thread, starting here:
> [@How were the pyramids in Egypt built?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/104):
>
> Bingo! The surprising thing isn’t that they used counterweights though, but that they used water as the ballast. Even the Acapana Pyramid has water tanks and weirs at the top. The Great Pyramid had the “Lake of the Jackal”. Ramps have been debunked as a means to have built the great pyramids. The evidence of how they were built is right before our eyes but people can’t accept it because they want to believe modern man is the crown of creation and ancient people were primitive and superstit…
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/11 "2026-08-10T21:53:25Z")
In order to be able to say that someone is wrong, you must first know what it is that they say. For instance, you clearly don’t know what Darwin said, because nothing in your OP contradicts any of it. So if you want to revolutionize science, you need to first learn science. Which you have shown no interest in doing.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/12 "2026-08-10T22:00:24Z")
> [@Locrian](#):
>
> Tell me, where did we get chickens?
From the other side of the road!
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### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/13 "2026-08-10T22:02:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> In order to be able to say that someone is wrong, you must first know what it is that they say. For instance, you clearly don’t know what Darwin said, because nothing in your OP contradicts any of it. So if you want to revolutionize science, you need to first learn science. Which you have shown no interest in doing.
He said the fittest survive. He put the cart before the horse. Saying survivors survive is nonsense. Reality sorts behavior. What doesn’t work fails and what does passes on its DNA. All individuals are equally fit. Darwin wasn’t even wrong.
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### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/14 "2026-08-10T22:03:45Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> From the other side of the road!
Thank you!
If they hadn’t crossed the road there’d be no reason for humans to look for answers in the fiurst place. 😉
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/15 "2026-08-10T22:18:10Z")
> [@cladking](#):
>
> He said the fittest survive.
No, he didn’t. Charles Spencer did. But either way, that’s a four-word summary of Darwin’s book. Of course it leaves out a lot of details.
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### Author:  [@Jihi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jihi)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/16 "2026-08-10T22:23:07Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> I don’t know your posting history, but man, that is not the own you think it is.
100% agreed. People whose primary purpose is “winning arguments” or “winning debates” I think are missing the what this place does best.
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### Author:  [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/17 "2026-08-10T22:27:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> No, he didn’t. Charles Spencer did. But either way, that’s a four-word summary of Darwin’s book. Of course it leaves out a lot of details.
You are mistaken. In a preface to a later edition he said “survival of the fittest” is a better description than “natural selection” but I like to describe them as equally wrong and equally meaningless.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/18 "2026-08-10T22:32:17Z")
> [@cladking](#):
>
> Ancient people didn’t take “wolfpups” to create a new species. They selected wolves that acted more like dogs. The selected oddballs that were much less aggressive and much more curious and they bred these and got not wolf pups, they got dogs. Every observation and experiment in every domain says point blank Darwin was wrong. Speciation is a sudden process caused by oddballs surviving a bottleneck.
Are wolves and dogs the same species?
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### Author:  [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/19 "2026-08-10T22:37:41Z")
Seems to me Bill Murray got this one correct.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-in-species/1032282/20 "2026-08-10T23:00:57Z")
I feel like I should post that video from Billy Madison in every thread this poster starts.
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