Current Events > What fascinates you the most about evolution?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm very interested in the Last universal common ancestor:

https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/looking-for-luca-the-last-universal-common-ancestor/

Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat alien lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal vents. Anaerobic and autotrophic, it didnt breath air and made its own food from the dark, metal-rich environment around it. Its metabolism depended upon hydrogen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, turning them into organic compounds such as ammonia. Most remarkable of all, this little microbe was the beginning of a long lineage that encapsulates all life on Earth.
---

How it conveniently takes an animal 1,000,000 years to evolve so that there cannot be documented records of evolution.
---

Wow, I've never heard of that. To think, all those billions of years of evolution have led to this moment. Lol.
---

thecoolgu posted...

How it conveniently takes an animal 1,000,000 years to evolve so that there cannot be documented records of evolution.

we have several short-term examples of evolution

because it's genetics

also we have a fossil record but you probably don't care that geology and archaeology strongly support evolution too but w/e
---

Zero_Destroyer posted...

also we have a fossil record but you probably don't care that geology and archaeology strongly support evolution too but w/e

I might be interested in learning if it doesn't mean I have to read 100 paragraphs.
---

thecoolgu posted...

Zero_Destroyer posted...

also we have a fossil record but you probably don't care that geology and archaeology strongly support evolution too but w/e

I might be interested in learning if it doesn't mean I have to read 100 paragraphs.

That's your problem. Calling it "convenient" and claiming there are not documented records of evolution (demonstrably false) is intellectually dishonest if you're admitting you aren't even doing the research.
---

just how a species will physically change over time to adapt to its environment. Something genetically said "you need to develop this to continue to live here.....just give it a few hundred years and it'll gradually happen to save your species..."...its crazy.

Or how a species that was once at the top of the food chain can evolve over time to a lower specimen while still retaining some of its original traits.
---

Zero_Destroyer posted...

thecoolgu posted...

Zero_Destroyer posted...

also we have a fossil record but you probably don't care that geology and archaeology strongly support evolution too but w/e

I might be interested in learning if it doesn't mean I have to read 100 paragraphs.

That's your problem. Calling it "convenient" and claiming there are not documented records of evolution (demonstrably false) is intellectually dishonest if you're admitting you aren't even doing the research.

You may not be wrong, but at the very least, I believe you could answer this shortly.

What is the driving intelligence behind evolution? Why does the animal change? In other words, what force exists that lets the animal evolve?
---

thecoolgu posted...

You may not be wrong, but at the very least, I believe you could answer this shortly.

What is the driving intelligence behind evolution? Why does the animal change? In other words, what force exists that lets the animal evolve?

DNA
---

That billions of years of evolution has led to idiots denying it.
---

Zero_Destroyer posted...

thecoolgu posted...

You may not be wrong, but at the very least, I believe you could answer this shortly.

What is the driving intelligence behind evolution? Why does the animal change? In other words, what force exists that lets the animal evolve?

DNA

I have learned a lot about DNA, but I had no idea that it was magic.
---

thecoolgu posted...

Zero_Destroyer posted...

thecoolgu posted...

You may not be wrong, but at the very least, I believe you could answer this shortly.

What is the driving intelligence behind evolution? Why does the animal change? In other words, what force exists that lets the animal evolve?

DNA

I have learned a lot about DNA, but I had no idea that it was magic.

scientists can already rewrite DNA, you don't think it could happen naturally over thousands of years?
---

thecoolgu posted...

I have learned a lot about DNA, but I had no idea that it was magic.

You asked what the "force" was that let animal evolve: That's its genetic code and how it responds to its environment, and that's all determined by DNA because DNA is the base of living organisms. Inevitably, the system that allows all living beings to exist is going to be extremely complicated.

Being highly complex =/= magic
---

How great primates have common ancestors and where they diverge

How mammals are in the sea and some of the most successful animals in that domain

Just in a general sense, all the differentiated species of humans throughout the years and how some of those species still have a verified presence in modern humans (like having a percentage of Neanderthal DNA)

Just how quickly specialized traits can potentially appear in some species
---

its also wild to me how there are potential links between species that we might not have discovered yet. We know apes and humans both evolved from a common ancestor...but there is a possibility that there is a common link some place in the middle that we aren't fully aware of yet. Something that no longer exists but probably acted a lot like we do to an extent.
---

The knowledge that all of us are just a new take on that same creature that started it all. The latest in a string of successful copies of those original genes.

It was always been crazy to me that evolution can be stopped dead in its tracks by pressing the B button.
---

thronedfire2 posted...

thecoolgu posted...

Zero_Destroyer posted...

thecoolgu posted...

You may not be wrong, but at the very least, I believe you could answer this shortly.

What is the driving intelligence behind evolution? Why does the animal change? In other words, what force exists that lets the animal evolve?

DNA

I have learned a lot about DNA, but I had no idea that it was magic.

scientists can already rewrite DNA, you don't think it could happen naturally over thousands of years?

According to what I recall from high school, which may or may not be accurate...

The chromosomes contain the data of the organism, and can pass down certain traits to the offspring, these traits do not cause significant changes to the overall being of the organism, they just control minor changes. The DNA is the carrier of the chromosomes, and the DNA itself never actually changes the "blueprint" of the animal it represents.

Has there ever been any records of the DNA structure changing naturally? And thus, the DNA's "blueprint" changing naturally?

This may be as much of a learning experience for me as much as it is an argument.
---

Chromosomes are essentially just part of the storage mechanism for DNA. DNA is known to be capable of mutation naturally.

That zebras evolved to have white and black stripes
---

Alright. Maybe I will study this further at some point.

I apologize for the arrogance I exhibited earlier.
---

How I can press B to stop it
---

Kastrada posted...

It was always been crazy to me that evolution can be stopped dead in its tracks by pressing the B button.

Touch posted...

How I can press B to stop it

All good Christians pressed B
---

Convergent evolution. Look at how similar that glyptodonts and kin are to ankylosaurs, even though the former are mammals and the latter are reptiles.
---

What fascinates me is, that sometimes species will evolve themselves in to extinction.
---

I think it's cool to see how animals don't evolve in a vacuum, entire ecosystems all evolve together. Predators and prey will evolve alongside one another. It's why you don't usually see predators just dominating their food source, it's usually a relative even match up. Like how gazelle can outrun lions by basically just a hair.
---

How people believe it
---

why don't i have a prehensile penis?!

ProfessorKukui posted...

why don't i have a prehensile penis?!

Would you want one?
---

-The fact that there are trillions of cells working in a single person's body, each with its own purpose

-The fact that it has led to things like bioluminescence, birds being able to mimic sounds, plants that can move, animals that can change colors, and other strange tricks.

-I think it's cool how you can see an animal's environmental needs reflected in its biology. Like, deep sea fish look totally different from fish you find in a coral reef, for example.
---

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

I'm very interested in the Last universal common ancestor:

https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/looking-for-luca-the-last-universal-common-ancestor/

Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat alien lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal vents. Anaerobic and autotrophic, it didnt breath air and made its own food from the dark, metal-rich environment around it. Its metabolism depended upon hydrogen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, turning them into organic compounds such as ammonia. Most remarkable of all, this little microbe was the beginning of a long lineage that encapsulates all life on Earth.

Sounds made up
---

muchdran posted...

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

I'm very interested in the Last universal common ancestor:

https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/looking-for-luca-the-last-universal-common-ancestor/

Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat alien lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal vents. Anaerobic and autotrophic, it didnt breath air and made its own food from the dark, metal-rich environment around it. Its metabolism depended upon hydrogen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, turning them into organic compounds such as ammonia. Most remarkable of all, this little microbe was the beginning of a long lineage that encapsulates all life on Earth.

Sounds made up

You sound made up
---

that life somehow managed to find a way through so many millions of hostile environments and pressures for millions of years until we could communicate with each other across the globe and share dank memes

Evolution is a myth made up by the Chinese to make America less competitive
---

how it somehow created things such as love despite it being about survival

bump
---

bump
---