Explore Evolution claims that some current evolutionary biologists think that mutations that result in major changes in morphology (such as the mutations in the Hox gene Ultrabithorax, which produce the four-winged fruit fly) are necessary to explain morphological evolution. Modern evolutionary biologists do not suggest mutations in the genetic toolkit must have dramatic effects (as discussed elsewhere in this critique). Explore Evolution falsely asserts that evolutionary developmental biologists doubt the role of mutation in development.

The four-winged fruit fly is a classic example of how creationists misinterpret the genetic analysis of development. Developmental geneticists try to understand the role of a gene by modifying a gene and analyzing the consequences, so it is of little consequence that four winged flies would not survive in the wild. The importance of the four-winged fruit fly is that it demonstrated that a few mutations in a single gene were able to transform an entire structure.

Explore Evolution insists, contrary to the consensus of developmental biologists, that we don't really know what controls development or whether that mystery force could mutate:

Some developmental biologists now think that two other cellular features – the cytoskeleton and the cell membrane – store structural information that affecdts how the embryo develops, but there is much we do not know yet.

Explore Evolution claims:

Explore Evolution completely ignores studies showing that mutations in both protein coding sequences and in non-coding cis-regulatory element sequences (CREs) are responsible for changes in morphology. Explore Evolution muddies the distinction between mutations which affect protein structure and function, and mutations which affect when and where genes are turned on or off.

In its discussion of DNA and mutations, Explore Evolution asserts: