The Research News section of the January 2 edition of Science Magazine
(www.sciencemag.org) reports a discovery that is of interest to
creationists. The article is entitled, "Calibrating the Mitochondrial
Clock". Based on the assumption that 5 million years ago humans
and the great apes shared a common ancestor, they compared the
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) between samples. Based on
their evolutionary assumptions, they have estimated that the "clock
ticks" every 300 to 600 generations. (6000 to 12000 years). Now
the clock's calibration is being challenged by new research based
on actual measurements, rather than evolutionary assumptions.
The research was stimulated by the process of DNA testing done
in 1992 to identify the last Russian tsar. Researchers were stunned
to find evidence supporting a rate of one mutation every 40
generations (800 years). The enormity of the problem to
evolutionists becomes apparent when the article declares the
following: "Regardless of the cause, evolutionists are most
concerned about the effects of the mutation rate. For example,
researchers have calculated that "mitochondrial Eve" the woman
whose mtDNA was ancestral to that in all living people lived
100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. Using the new clock, she
would be a mere 6,000 years old." Rather than questioning their
assumptions, evolutionists have begun to "...think twice about the
mtDNA clock they depend on."