Should evolution explain EVERYTHING?

By obiwong
in Science News & Discussion

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Grand Master

Solid Knight

Posted
Posted

there's been one thing i've never understood. how does a species make the transition from one to another. Surely that even if a new species appeared(one that had a different number of chromosomes) that surely he would be genetically unique and inable to have offspring with it's parents species.

We haven't been studying long enough to observe evolution. Most of it is inferred from the remains of animals in which it becomes difficult to tell when all you have is bone. Quite a bit of the theory is based on the genetic similarities of existing animals or plants then trying to work backwards from there which means it will be prone to errors. Transitions are difficult to find because it's supposedly gradual.

Another issue is evolution is the broad assumption of a single ancestor.

If evolution is correct, and man evolved from Ape, why are there still Apes ?

Forking. It's not as though were used to be orangutans or something we were just more closely related in the past.

Grand Master

Phenom II

Posted
Posted

So going along evolutions rules, that means in another 1,000,000 odd years, we will have evolved into something that makes humans look as dumb as our ancestors do to us now ? And there will be no more people / humans as we know them now?

Its life Jim, but not as we "knew" it

Grand Master

iamawesomewicked

Posted
Posted

So going along evolutions rules, that means in another 1,000,000 odd years, we will have evolved into something that makes humans look as dumb as our ancestors do to us now ? And there will be no more people / humans as we know them now?

Its life Jim, but not as we "knew" it

No, it took millions of years for humans to evolve into what we are today. We probably will never evolve any more thanks to modern science and everything else that we do.

Go read up on evolution, you seem to know nothing about it. You think we evolved from Apes.

Grand Master

Phenom II

Posted
Posted

I know nothing of it because I dont believe that is how we came to be. Each to their own of course.

Evolution would not just stop, not even for science, and what we do is nothing compared to what mothernature has done throughout those years.

Grand Master

Solid Knight

Posted
Posted

So going along evolutions rules, that means in another 1,000,000 odd years, we will have evolved into something that makes humans look as dumb as our ancestors do to us now ?

Maybe. Evolution is all about reproductive success so not all changes are about being better beyond how well you can reproduce. Humans are rather interesting in this regard as we have more abstract things that affect our reproductive success. We also compete against everything that can feed off us. A bacteria could mutate and become very successful in killing us all off. We can kill ourselves off. Fungi could mutate and zombify us (http://www.livescience.com/animals/090812-ant-fungus.html). We could also artificially enhance ourselves and stay on top. Anything is possible.

Grand Master

Phenom II

Posted
Posted

Maybe. Evolution is all about reproductive success so not all changes are about being better beyond how well you can reproduce. Humans are rather interesting in this regard as we have more abstract things that affect our reproductive success. We also compete against everything that can feed off us. A bacteria could mutate and become very successful in killing us all off. We can kill ourselves off. Fungi could mutate and zombify us (http://www.livescience.com/animals/090812-ant-fungus.html). We could also artificially enhance ourselves and stay on top. Anything is possible.

From the state of the world atm, I think we have the most likely chance of killing ourselves off before any bacteria mutates

But... that said, its interesting, but what force pushes us to evolve? What decides we need to reproduce more successfully and changes our bodies / minds accordingly? Surely we did a good enough job to begin with or there would have been nothing left to evolve from ?

Grand Master

Solid Knight

Posted
Posted

From the state of the world atm, I think we have the most likely chance of killing ourselves off before any bacteria mutates

But... that said, its interesting, but what force pushes us to evolve? What decides we need to reproduce more successfully and changes our bodies / minds accordingly? Surely we did a good enough job to begin with or there would have been nothing left to evolve from ?

Random mutation (which occurs naturally and we observe it). When one of those random mutations leads to reproductive success it begins to proliferate. There's also a bit of luck involved there as you can be very successful but then get killed by some other totally random event. Imagine all the life forms wiped out by huge wildfires and whatnot.

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