Current Events > Dumb question about how evolution works...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Its been bugging me for years now.

But would a species not die off nearly right away for evolution to starting taking shape?

Or does the species simply manage to survive somehow in its new environment, etc. long enough to start evolving over time? As in, if this species does not evolve soon, it'll die out.

And evolution is just fascinating. I'm still trying to understand how species naturally develop new traits and what not to survive. And is it not something we can notice as it happens? Maybe its way too slow to see (I mean, some life forms took billions of years, no?)

And if you have some cool links about this and space stuff, I'd appreciate it. Been looking at space stuff all day because of the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus.

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why would an entire species die right away

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evolution:

something went a little bit wrong, and the babies are a little bit different than what they should be.
if they're lucky, that little bit wrong means they get to have more babies than the rest of their species.
over generations, the side that went a little bit wrong gradually becomes more and more prevalent, compared to the side that stayed the same.
sometimes, both can survive. other times, the new population continues to grow, as the old continues to dwindle.

sometimes, they're not lucky and they have fewer babies that the rest of their species, and the mutation dies out.
and sometimes, they new side is unlucky and dies to something completely random even if they would have otherwise been able to replace their cousins.

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AbstraktProfSC2 posted...

why would an entire species die right away

Because the rapid change of environment, atmosphere, etc. happens to fast.

For example, imagine the temperature permanently going up to really dangerous levels or whatever. There wouldn't be time to slowly evolve.

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Say a finch is born with a slightly longer beak than the rest; it will get more worms that the rest. This will be noticed by others of it's species and will proceed to breed with it. the babies now have a better chance of the long beak. this process continues until most of the have long beaks and you now have a different species.


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Yeah. A species needs to adapt or die. 99% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct.

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species don't evolve to meet their environments. they evolve because some random mutations are better suited to the new conditions than the extant species and they live to have more babies (on average) and the mutation(s) propagate.

a lot of times, that mutation doesn't happen and the species has to migrate or go extinct.

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if an entire species dies right away....they cant evolve. thats called extinction
and no. fish dont just sprout legs suddenly just because the tide is low


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