Evolution, yes but how?

Colbaker

Colbaker

Colbaker

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Ok, most of us take evolution for granted, My main issue with it is "how does anything actually evolve?" is there a separate power that we cannot see that decides a certain animal is getting eaten to much by it's prey so does it decide to start the change of this animals skin to camouflage said animal? Or does the species itself have some sort of unconscious connection that detects their numbers falling and decides to adapt themselves for protection?

Also take us humans, It is said that we have evolved from living in trees because our environment changed and their were less trees around, what process actually caused this? I can't tak th answer "because we did" there has to be a process going on that decides to start evolving.
 
The ones that will not have been eaten are the ones with skin colour that is most camouflaged. They then breed and birth ones with more of that skin colour, etc.
 
You are good at running, you out run fat people who get eaten by predator you have children, who are good at running....

Basically something born with a advantageous mutation that helps it survive, the chances are it will live to pass on it's genes and perhaps it's offspring will also have the mutation.
 
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Random mutations result in advantages which, if advantageous enough, then become more prevalent as a result of survival of the fittest.
 
Natural mutation leads to some animals being better camouflaged etc, these animals live longer and breed more, the genetic mutation is passed onto some of their offspring and so on and so on...

Very basically
 
Colbaker said:
I can't tak th answer "because we did" there has to be a process going on that decides to start evolving.
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No there doesn't. If a random genetic mutation is beneficial then it is more likely to propogate.

Take for example the Peppered moth which was almost always light with a few that were black, until its environment changed.

The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested upon. However, because of widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-coloured moths, or typica, to die off from predation. At the same time, the dark-coloured, or melanic, moths, carbonaria, flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees.
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Evolution happens by tiny changes.

The famous example is darwins finches on the galapagos, the sizes and shapes of their beaks vary as the ones with the most appropriate beak for the food source survives, and passes on its dna.

If a selection pressure causes a certain trait to be more likely to survive, the organism which shows the trait or has an ever better expression of the trait survives. So things such as a pentadactyl limb grew from tiny little fins on fish, to arms and legs found on terrestrial animals.
 
Volcs said:
Random mutations result in advantages which, if advantageous enough, then become more prevalent as a result of survival of the fittest.
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Spot on.

The reason homo sapiens dominate the planet is because we were the variety of primate that was most suited to living outside of trees/jungles. We didn't adapt to other environments - we were well-suited to them by chance and took advantage.
 
Colbaker said:
Also take us humans, It is said that we have evolved...
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We also used to have tails that served a purpose in our early state but through evolution this is no longer required although the tail bone still exists for other purposes:

The coccyx, or tailbone, is the remnant of a lost tail. All mammals have a tail at one point in their development; in humans, it is present for a period of 4 weeks, during stages 14 to 22 of human embryogenesis.[8] This tail is most prominent in human embryos 31–35 days old.[9] The tailbone, located at the end of the spine, has lost its original function in assisting balance and mobility, though it still serves some secondary functions, such as being an attachment point for muscles, which explains why it has not degraded further.

In rare cases congenital defect results in a short tail-like structure being present at birth. Twenty-three cases of human babies born with such a structure have been reported in the medical literature since 1884
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Our evolution is more mental than anything else now as Knowledge increases we adapt the environment to suit our needs rather than adapting to the environment through survival of the fittest, but as knowledge continues to increase we may end up using either mechanical or Bio technology to physically change ourselves as well as our surroundings. It also sounds pretty cool!
 
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Robbie G said:
So you're saying my massive penis was just a random accident?
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I think the way evolution works is that it's inherited. So maybe you got it from your mother? :p

Regarding the OP's question though. It has been answered, and really can be summarised in my opinion with "Survival of the Fittest".
 
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