"Primates and guinea pigs have lost the ability to make their own vitamin C, an example of evolution." (Claim #E4454)
Response
Not being able to produce our own vitamin C is an example of de-evolution, the direct opposite of evolution. It is the result of a mutation 1 and can cause scurvy in humans. Evolution is supposed to explain how the vitamin C pathway was created in the first place, not how it was destroyed.
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Sources
Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why Evolution Is True. New York: Viking.
Notes
- Coyne, 2009, p. 68: “It turns out that the pathway for making vitamin C from glucose involves a sequence of four steps, each promoted by the product of a different gene. Primates and guinea pigs still have active genes for the first three steps, but the last step, which requires the GLO enzyme, doesn’t take place: GLO has been inactivated by a mutation.” ↩