Fruit Fly 3

This picture is from the FlyBase website, where you can see more pictures and the citations for the artists. FlyBase is a collaboration of Harvard University, Indiana University, University of New Mexico, and the University of Cambridge UK funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Flybase Citation: Thurmond J, Goodman JL, Strelets VB, Attrill H, Gramates LS, Marygold SJ, Matthews BB, Millburn G, Antonazzo G, Trovisco V, Kaufman TC, Calvi BR and the FlyBase Consortium. (2019) "FlyBase 2.0: the next generation," Nucleic Acids Res 47(D1) D759-D765.

The picture gives you an idea of the life cycle of the fruit fly. The adult lays eggs (gametes), an egg becomes an embryo and develops into the larva. The larva has cells which eventually become the forms of the adult. The pupa is covered by a shell and the adult eventually emerges (metamorphosis) to complete the cycle. A cycle can happen in as little as a week.

Scientists are finding that many organisms share the same types of genes in the developmental process. This is a tantalizing discovery for them, since it makes it seem like there are enough similarities to assume that nature alone has the ability to bring the changes about. But, the process has great barriers to totally natural evolution. Author Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute wrote an important and controversial article in Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 117(2):213-239, 2004 called, "The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories." It is the article featured in the movie Expelled that gave the scientific community shudders because it mentioned "Intelligent Design" in a peer-reviewed publication. It points out the many super-structures which have to be dwelling within the organism simply to bring about its existence as we know it.