Evolution

Pyrich

Which therioes do you prefer?

Catastrophism, Gradualism, Saltationism?  One of the thousands of other theories?  A mix and match of all of them?

 

They all have some good ideas in there.  For instance Saltationist want to know why some believe that through the process of gradualism a lizard would "grow" wings.  How could/Why would an animal spend millions of years and billions(if not trillions) of generations to grow wings?  To them it only makes sense the process had to be immedient or the genetic mutation that started the process would of been the organisms demise rather than savior.  What good would a ten million year span of having 1/4 of a wing be?  Only to then have only 1/2 a wing?

 

Any opinions?

bluberryhaze

 sorta hijacked.

you just reminded me of what i forgot. i was thinking yesterday about evolution. it seems we are done evolving because if we were to start sprouting new parts, we'd be locked up in a lab somewhere and the populace would be given a vaccine.

i really wanted gryphon wings, damnit!

 

well, lets just say humans can evolve moreso. and if it were something not as subtle as larger brain capacity, if it were a third leg(oops, i have one of them already) if it were a third ear that filters out the bullshit we are fed by media and politicians, i wonder if it would sprout all at once...millions of babies born with the filter ear. than it would be obvious to me we are in a petri dish for a larger intelligence, a God. 

if it were gradual, one here..two there etc over thousands of years, id still call it miraculous. and mysterious, the way our creator intended.

sandboxy

Evolution doesn't decide one day 'hey, let's grow wings to that lizard over there. For the lulz.', it does not happen that way. It propably happened that the ancestor of that lizard gained some advantage from the ability to make longer jumps, but because its legs weren't made for that sort of thing while working great for swimming or whatever, it didn't grow lion like legs, but instead got better at gliding after jumping. Time passed and it's front legs got wider (or something similar) to make it glide/fly longer distances better and finally it developed wings.

I realise that wasn't the best example of how evolution works, but it could have happened like that.

Good thing to keep in mind, when pondering how evolution works, is that every organism, be it an animal or a plant, pursues to keep it's energy consumption to minimal. That means that it doesn't start to grow wings just to see if they might end up being useful.

 

EDIT: Humans don't evolve anymore, because being just a little more intelligent does not mean you'll succeed in todays world any better than everyone else, and wiseversa. Example, Paris Hilton...need I say more?

CactusmanX

Gradualism makes the most sense to me and from what I have seen, supported better by evidence.

 

It is important to remember that creatures do not evolve over generations with a goal, like wings, nor is evolution tealogical, it just happens.

I agree with the concept that longer jumps led to gliding and then flying.  But flight is also made possible by things like warm bloodedness and feathers.

Pyrich

Originally posted by bluberryhaze


 sorta hijacked.
you just reminded me of what i forgot. i was thinking yesterday about evolution. it seems we are done evolving because if we were to start sprouting new parts, we'd be locked up in a lab somewhere and the populace would be given a vaccine.

 

Bad Movie but an interesting theory about our own future evolution.

 

www.youtube.com/watch