Evolution

Dr. Michael Clegg’s work (Part A, April 12) decoding 20-million-year-old magnolia leaf fossils produced a spectacular result. Genetic change at the rate of one mutation every million years questions the very theory of evolution itself.

If a 20-million-year-old magnolia leaf is almost identical to a present-day magnolia leaf, where is the evolutionary change? At this rate, it would take trillions of years for humans to evolve.

If Clegg’s work provides a “clock,” the time just ran out on evolution.

ROBERT T. ANDERSEN JR.

Riverside