Mechanism of Evolution: Part iii
After Reading about Selection, let us see whether
The answer is yes,
Ever heard of male Crickets, they love to sing. But on the Hawaiin Island of Kauai, that singing comes with a price. Several years ago a parasitic fly arrived on the island. Those flies listen for crickets' chirping wings, lay eggs inside them, and the crickets are devoured from within. Resulting, Kauai's crickets almost disappeared, except for a few. These survivors were missing the ridges that crickets normally rub together to chirp, and today Kauai is filled with quiet crickets. Silence saved their lives. This wasn't just a change in behavior. The silent wing shape was caused by a mutation on the cricket's X chromosomes. Kauai's cricket became the strong silent type in fewer than 20 generations.
Not only did we see natural selection in action, but we see it in the blink of an eye.
A few years later, those parasitic flies showed up on neighbouring Oahu, and in response, most of the crickets there had gone silent too. Surprisingly, they had developed a completely different mutation tn the same gene. Nature arrived ate the same destination by two completely different paths.
While evolution is a long gradual process, restassured we've witnessed plent of fine tuning right before our eyes.
A giraffe looks perfectly suited for its enviornment. But that long neck hides a stunning error of evolutionary engineering. Although it's just a few inches from the brain, the nerves controlling a giraffe's voice box takes a 15-foot detour befor reaching their destination. We are wired up the same way. The nerve letting me to talk to you right now is wrapped around my aorta( Heart). In our fish ancestors, that nerve connected brain to gills. But as gills gave way to lungs and heads moved forward, things got a little tangled.
Our bodies are full of examples proving evolution can be kind of dumb.
Why would we eat, drink and breathe all through the same hole?
Why would we get cavities or cancer?
Because natural selection isn't about " Survival of the fittest", it's more like survival of the good enough.
Look down. No matter what your biological sex, most of us have two nipples. It's easy to see why females have two nipples. We're mammals. Dogs, cats, pigs and whales all have nipples too. Like us, they nourish their offspring with milk. But male nipples?
If they are not an evoltionary advantage why hasn't natural selection erased them?
Traits don't have to provide a specific advantage to get passed on. It's just a side effect of nature selecting different chemistry for different creatures.
Like every living thing, we're not an end product of natural selection, we're just a work in progress. And we should feel good about that. That's the best we can do.
Enjoy Evolution
We have ever seen Evolution happen?
The answer is yes,
Ever heard of male Crickets, they love to sing. But on the Hawaiin Island of Kauai, that singing comes with a price. Several years ago a parasitic fly arrived on the island. Those flies listen for crickets' chirping wings, lay eggs inside them, and the crickets are devoured from within. Resulting, Kauai's crickets almost disappeared, except for a few. These survivors were missing the ridges that crickets normally rub together to chirp, and today Kauai is filled with quiet crickets. Silence saved their lives. This wasn't just a change in behavior. The silent wing shape was caused by a mutation on the cricket's X chromosomes. Kauai's cricket became the strong silent type in fewer than 20 generations.
Not only did we see natural selection in action, but we see it in the blink of an eye.
A few years later, those parasitic flies showed up on neighbouring Oahu, and in response, most of the crickets there had gone silent too. Surprisingly, they had developed a completely different mutation tn the same gene. Nature arrived ate the same destination by two completely different paths.
While evolution is a long gradual process, restassured we've witnessed plent of fine tuning right before our eyes.
Is Evolution Dumb ?
A giraffe looks perfectly suited for its enviornment. But that long neck hides a stunning error of evolutionary engineering. Although it's just a few inches from the brain, the nerves controlling a giraffe's voice box takes a 15-foot detour befor reaching their destination. We are wired up the same way. The nerve letting me to talk to you right now is wrapped around my aorta( Heart). In our fish ancestors, that nerve connected brain to gills. But as gills gave way to lungs and heads moved forward, things got a little tangled.
Our bodies are full of examples proving evolution can be kind of dumb.
Why would we eat, drink and breathe all through the same hole?
Why would we get cavities or cancer?
Because natural selection isn't about " Survival of the fittest", it's more like survival of the good enough.
Look down. No matter what your biological sex, most of us have two nipples. It's easy to see why females have two nipples. We're mammals. Dogs, cats, pigs and whales all have nipples too. Like us, they nourish their offspring with milk. But male nipples?
If they are not an evoltionary advantage why hasn't natural selection erased them?
Traits don't have to provide a specific advantage to get passed on. It's just a side effect of nature selecting different chemistry for different creatures.
Like every living thing, we're not an end product of natural selection, we're just a work in progress. And we should feel good about that. That's the best we can do.
Enjoy Evolution
It's interesting piece of info.. would be good if you can elaborate more.. would love to read more on this :)
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting piece of info.. would be good if you can elaborate more.. would love to read more on this :)
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your valuable feedback. Would definitely come with more elaborated article next time.
ReplyDelete