# Micro vs. Macro  - Speckled Moth Example

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-vs-macro-speckled-moth-example/21887>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 9, 2000, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-vs-macro-speckled-moth-example/21887 "2000-06-09T17:36:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-vs-macro-speckled-moth-example/21887/21 "2000-06-12T19:40:42Z")

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Under the given definitions, the dodo would have to be lumped under micro-evolution. The end of a species pretty much guarantees that that species is not going to morph into another species. No change at all is about the smallest change you can make. Isn’t that the creationist (or rather, macroevolution-denier) viewpoint, that a species once created stays a species until it disappears?

I’ve seen illustrations of a fossil continuum, I just can’t remember where I saw them. Anybody?

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-vs-macro-speckled-moth-example/21887/22 "2000-06-14T00:28:19Z")

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Quoth RM Mentock:

> [@](#):
>
> The earliest experimental support for general relativity was the famous eclipse observations in 1919–which propelled Einstein to international celebrity status. How much those experiments actually supported GR, well, that’s another story.

In the eclipse observation of 1919, the results were pretty much lost in the noise, but slightly favored the GR prediction. The experiment has since been repeated, however, to significantly better precision, as well as a number of other tests, all of which support GR. The point is that these tests are completely different than those used for SR.  
hardlyb: Certainly, there are people who don’t know the difference, and I didn’t mean to imply that you’re one of them. I would hope, at least, though, that these weren’t physics grad students who had that confusion.

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