quote:
How the hell do fish "evolve" and "mutate" to where they can go from only breathing underwater to being able to breathe oxygen on land?

It makes no sense.

Alright, I just did a little research. This is what I came up with:

We all know about natural selection. No need to get into that.

The big differences when species evolve are caused by mutations. Mutations can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful for the organism, but mutations do not "try" to supply what the organism "needs." Meaning, it's not like a fish needs legs to go on land and will eventually sprout legs because he "needs" legs. These things happen through a random mutation.

Some mutations are harmful to a species.

Mutations that occur in non-reproductive cells are NOT passed on to offspring.

Large-scale mutations are those that occur in reproductive cells and can be passed on to offspring.

How do mutations happen? DNA fails to copy accurately. When that happens, weird shite can happen.

**** Now, here is the most important part that is applicable to this article *****

Explaining Major Evolutionary Change

Changes in the genes controlling development can have major effects on the morphology of the adult organism. Because these effects are so significant, scientists suspect that changes in developmental genes have helped bring about large-scale evolutionary transformations.

Developmental changes may help explain, for example, how some hoofed mammals evolved into ocean-dwellers, how water plants invaded the land, and how small, armored invertebrates evolved wings.

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Posted by geauxturbo

Baton Rouge

Member since Aug 2007

4204 posts

Posted on 1/14/14 at 12:56 pm to PrimeTime Money

The one all of our biology/genetics teachers like to use is sickle cell. A carrier of sickle cell (passive trait like blue eyes. You have to have bl bl to get blue eyes. bl Br will show brown eyes even though you are recessive b for blue eyes) can survive malaria because of the shape of the blood cell is slightly irregular, while full sickle cell adults die (blood cell too irregular to bond oxygen..IIRC) and full non-sickle cell adults get malaria and die. Sickle cell is passed on. However, white folks don't have it because we were freezing our asses off far away from malaria.

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Posted by olgoi khorkhoi

priapism survivor

Member since May 2011

14936 posts

Posted on 1/16/14 at 8:34 am to PrimeTime Money

quote:
The big differences when species evolve are caused by mutations. Mutations can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful for the organism, but mutations do not "try" to supply what the organism "needs." Meaning, it's not like a fish needs legs to go on land and will eventually sprout legs because he "needs" legs. These things happen through a random mutation. Some mutations are harmful to a species. Mutations that occur in non-reproductive cells are NOT passed on to offspring. Large-scale mutations are those that occur in reproductive cells and can be passed on to offspring. How do mutations happen? DNA fails to copy accurately. When that happens, weird shite can happen. **** Now, here is the most important part that is applicable to this article ***** Explaining Major Evolutionary Change Changes in the genes controlling development can have major effects on the morphology of the adult organism. Because these effects are so significant, scientists suspect that changes in developmental genes have helped bring about large-scale evolutionary transformations. Developmental changes may help explain, for example, how some hoofed mammals evolved into ocean-dwellers, how water plants invaded the land, and how small, armored invertebrates evolved wings.

Screw the tetrapods. I want to know if social programs are retarding human evolution.

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