The theory of biological evolution is based on change in the offspring of an organism either through combinations of traits inherited from the parent(s) or by mutation during reproduction. For the necessary number of changes to occur to progress from combinations of reproducing molecules to modern humans a certain number of generations must have occurred. For single celled life, generations occur rapidly but for more advanced organisms, there are far fewer generations and thus less opportunity for change. Throw in time for the Earth to cool, global catastrophes such as volcanism and asteroid and comet collisions, to cause rates of change to vary, and an evolutionary model could be constructed. Has this ever been done, and if so, what did it show? How many generations would be required for us to have evolved and has the Earth been in existence long enough for that many generations to have occurred?
2007-03-28
15:36:53
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5 answers
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asked by
Zefram
2