Do you believe in evolution??
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My 8 year old over the weekend wanted to talk to me about the theory of evolution, which he was learning at school. Thing is, I’ve always had questions over the evolution theory (and I’m not a religious fanatic who believed God did it all about 10k years ago etc)!
Simplistically, I see monkeys/gorillas, and I see human beings. What I don’t see are the creatures in between. What happened to them? At what point did the evolution thing stop, and we end up with the finished article i.e us?
(I have a feeling that some members are going to say “ah, they are alive and well and living in xxxx)!
Well, I can see this post opening up a proverbial can of evolving worms.
Basically , we arn’t the finished article , evolution doesn’t stop.
Apes and monkeys have the same ancestors as we do (as do all mammals ) . They have just evolved in a different way . Our ancestors have died out but our branch of evolution continues , as does that of those on other branches .
We are evolving , our children are not the same as we were . They live in a different ecosystem than we did/do , which is evolving too . If we do not fit into the future ecosystem , then we will become extinct and another life form will evolve further.
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With evolution, the steps are very small indeed, so you don’t get a “missing link”. The missing link concept is a common misconception about how evolution works.
Speciation (i.e. a new species arrives) happens when after many generations the latest in the line could not reproduce with the ancestors.
For example, if we had a time machine and we could go back 1000 years we could probably reproduce with our ancestors. Continue to go back 1000 years at a time and you would not be able to reproduce with our ancestors after a certain number of iterations. Each of our ancestors would be able to go back 1000 years and reproduce without problems.
There are many examples of speciation where for geographic reasons a species gets split up and develops separately. For example when South America split from Africa species developed separately. A Llama and a giraffe have a common ancestor but could not reproduce together.
Volcanic islands often have endemic species (unique to that place) because a species arrived and then developed to be different enough from the original it could not breed.
Saint Helena (in the south Atlantic) has 13 endemic species. The wirebird which is a type of Plover is now a different species from the original plover that arrived (probably by a storm) many years ago. There are also coastal fish and snails which are now unique to that island.
Does this help? I could give you links to books that explain it far better than I can.
The Ancestor Tale by Richard Dawkins explains it all very well. You can also listen to an audiobook of this on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafbh84dVO0
Fascinating stuff LB.
Would/is evolution be linked to climate change ?
Very good explanation Lun Bugel
Neanderthal, we know now we had inheritate some of its genes. We’ve been certainly very close to each others at one time. Maybe some other fertile unions had happened in the past too, who knows
Who’s to say that the finished article is us? (Typical of us to think that I guess). We’re just a virus in shoes. Talking of viruses, research shows we have absorbed virus DNA along our evolutionary journey….
Evolution is not linear but has many branches. The Neanderthals were a branch too but died out but they bred with homo sapiens and their genes live on in some of us, as Babeth pointed out. It’s a common argument for the anti evolution brigade to say that the fact that monkeys and apes have not evolved into humans disproves evolution theory but this is both arrogant and wrong.
Interesting point PJ. Evolution of our species would certainly be affected by climate change – but…We are the first species that has the ability to change our physical environment without the need to evolve into a changed circumstance. For instance, humans can live in polar regions by wearing warmer clothes or by pinching another species fur coat!
Our evolution continues but is different. Because we are now able to do caesarian sections for difficult childbirth, more mothers with smaller childbearing hips survive and in turn pass on genes so there is a general trend to have women with smaller hips.
I learned an interesting fact the other day. Take any three chimpanzees and there is a greater genetic difference between them than the whole of humanity on earth! Wouldn’t life be better if we concentrated on our similarities rather than our differences?
Too true Babeth about Neanderthals. 50,000 years ago there were 4 species of hominoid on the earth. We are the only survivors.
Our evolution continues but is different. Because we are now able to do caesarian sections for difficult childbirth, more mothers with smaller childbearing hips survive and in turn pass on genes so there is a general trend to have women with smaller hips.
Which means we are influencing our own evolution so that less and less ” normal births ” will take place. Not always a good thing as we become more and more reliant on technology to stay alive and reproduce.
Thank you LB, I can see I have looked at this issue too simplistically. I still have a nagging doubt though. And I guess it throws up another huge question regarding are we alone in the universe/galaxy?? I find it impossible to believe that we are, and I’m definitely not a conspiracy junkie!
As regards are we alone in the universe – no one knows.
Speaking statistically I believe that there are surely other life forms on other planets throughout our galaxy and the universe.
When we think of life, we tend to think about life as we know it. i.e. carbon-based, oxygen breathing etc – perhaps other forms exist, silicon-based for example.
On our planet, there were only single-cell life forms for the first 2 billion years. Multi-cell forms followed on and after that it is history.
People talk about the “goldilocks zone” where life like ours could exist. So, we need a planet within a certain range of its sun, a molten core, in existence for at least 2 billion years etc. This is a very rare thing and certainly, most planets will not fit into this category. Estimates vary, (of course) but it is thought at least 10,000 planets in our galaxy could have some form of life.
Someone likened it to ‘think about the size of your lounge, of all the atoms in the room, only a single one may be suitable”.
Billions to 1 against, but there are billions and billions of stars with planets. To give you an idea, for each tree on earth there are over thirty thousand million stars in the universe. So, statistically, I think there must be some life out there. The chances of us ever making contact must be practically zero. Perhaps it is less or more advanced than us. Who knows?
Admin Paul, if you are sceptical about evolution, how do you personally think life on earth as it is now has come about?
Wish I knew! I do know that there are references made in various ancient civilisations to “visits” and help from what appear to be visitors. I have seen the Mayan ruins for example, and been amazed by the knowledge and technical ability they possessed. They achieved so much, and with such accuracy, it is very hard to believe they did all of that without some form of assistance. I know I am not building a lucid case here, just rambling a bit, but I still have those nagging doubts and questions!
Personally I see no reason why previous civilizations of humans shouldn’t have achieved advanced levels of technology either without any help, they had the same brains as us.
Yes, it’s not so long ago on the human civilization scale. We have more time now for creativity because some of us don’t spend all their life looking for food, are paid for it, and live longer. I suppose if these civilizations were lucky enough to live in a friendly environement, some of them would have plenty of time to think as well as we do now. Some of their knowledge might also have been lost.
Personally I see no reason why previous civilizations of humans shouldn’t have achieved advanced levels of technology either without any help, they had the same brains as us.
So basically you are saying , that our brains havn’t changed in 4,000 years ?
I think Jazzy was saying they had brains to use, as we do, what we do with them may have developed in a different direction but certainly, the brains they had must have either been just as capable as ours from what was produced or someone else’s brain was? There are some amazing feats of technology in ancient times.
Evolution means just that .
Our brains have evolved and are not the same as those of a side branch of our ancestors .
At the moment evolution is speeding up and leaving quite a few people behind . Wether the changes are in a good direction only time will tell . If the techno society gets to a point where it cannot keep itself alive then civilization will fall back to the situation where it could sustain itself .
All the ancient civilisations died out for various reasons , they were not sustainable .
I believe ( like admin Paul) that the human race has been ” changed” in the past by meetings with intelligent beings from outside of our planet. Here too , there are various theories , genetic manipulation being one.
Personally I see no reason why previous civilizations of humans shouldn’t have achieved advanced levels of technology either without any help, they had the same brains as us.
So basically you are saying , that our brains havn’t changed in 4,000 years ?
Yes, I am. 4000 years is nothing in evolutionary terms. The Mayans were modern Homo Sapiens like us.
I personally don’t think we have been interfered with aliens in the past. We have just evolved to be clever apes who are good with our hands. But we are also arrogant and measure the intelligence all other species by comparing them to us. We measure intelligence by technological achievement. Who’s to say there aren’t more ‘intelligent’ lifeforms on the planet than us in their own way…?
I agree that we and the Mayans are both homo sapiens ( Homo sapiens being more than 100,000 years on the planet) but 4,000 years of evolution will change habits, ways of thinking and living which in turn will change the body .
If we decide that evolution stopped at homo sapiens , then are we saying that we are the reason for evolution ?
Already scientists are talking about the next step in evolution called Homo evolutis. This of course presupposing that we do not knock ourselves back into the stone age ( Mayan ) soon
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