Divining Darwin in Butterfly Genes

When you look into the crystal ball of DNA, do you see evolution? A team of scientists carefully examined genomes of a butterfly and a silkworm. What they found was interesting, but dubious as an example of evolutionary ancestry.

Publishing in PLoS ONE, scientists from the U.S., Netherlands, and Portugal took partial data from the African Bush Brown Butterfly (Bicyclus anynana), known for the dazzling array of eyespots on its wings. (The photo above depicts androconial scales; credit: ...