So if evolution is in place now, what will the llama's become?

Question

what will the dogs, cats, mutts, ferrets or cows become onto the next stage? one end dog, the other end cat? If scientist studied what has happened in evolution, then can't they predict what the future animals will be? perhaps the flying ferret, or the crawling bat, oh and maybe the aquatic bear that lives on the ocean floor?

Answer 1

Your question is actually quite a good one. Especially since we know that dogs didn't exist a few thousand years ago and, in fact, evolved from wolves. Domesticated cats did not exist either. The cows that you see today did not exist in the form that they are. Horses were a lot smaller. It's all quite interesting.


Oh and let's not forget Ligers, Tigons, Wholphins, mules, etc. All nature needs to do is create a viable hybrid and wait for it to reproduce. The Wholphin has already done that. Perhaps one day we will see a cat-dog.

Answer 2

Of course we cannot tell for sure, since many evolutionary changes depend on environmental changes. Some are extremely unlikely since some adaptive paths preclude others. For example, elephants got really big, probably do avoid predators, so they have big solid bones, and this will probably keep them from ever flying. Small dinosaurs could evolve into both giant animals and birds because the same adaptations (hollow bones, decentralized nervous system, a very 'central' center of gravity) were equally good for being a small flyer or a really huge animal. So we can say that certain changes are more likely than others. Probably bears won't live at the bottom of the ocean, and cat-dogs are right out. I suppose a ferret might be able to become a flying predator if the conditions were right, and a crawling bat might be possible on an island with no large ground-dwelling predators.

Answer 3

it will depend on the ecosystem and how it changes and how animals will need to change to adapt to that environment. this is why mammals are in abundance now as opposed to before the last ice age. I suppose educated guesses can be made but the process is slow and none of us will live to see a flying ferret. Perhaps llamas will develop longer necks or better legs for moving through the snow or perhaps they will not change at all or fast enough in which case they will become extinct such as the dinosaurs did and be replaced by a more fit species

Answer 4

It's too hard to say. The entire idea is that it starts with random chance. Something goes a little awry in the genetic code, and it causes a change. If this change happens to be beneficial, the animal will have a slight edge and, barring some freak accident, will probably have more offspring than average and pass the change along. If the change is detrimental, on the other hand, the animal is less likely to have many (if any) offspring and the change is likely to die out with it. A neutrally beneficial change... well could go either way. But you see it all starts with random chance, so you can only guess where it's going.

Answer 5

No, scientists cannot predict what evolution will produce in the future since evolution is the combination of the reponse of a species to environmental pressures/changes (climate, food, etc.) and random changes in the genetic code. Since both precursor conditions cannot be predicted, the future evolution of a species also cannot be predicted.

Answer 6

Actually, yes, they can make educated guesses. Watch Discovery Channel. They have a special on it on a regular basis.

You appear to be asking this in some sort of sarcastic fashion, as if the concept of evolution is silly. If only you could see how backwards that is...

Answer 7

i reckon cats will go extinct, atleast a lot of dogs will go extinct like pugs, bull dogs, and cocker spaniel (even though they are my favorite). i think flying squirrels will eventually actuall fly. i think us humans will not naturally evolve thanks to technollogy there is less survival of the fittest and more survival of everyone. but we might evolve through technology via genetic engineering or some sort of cyborg type creation down loading the brain onto a computer. Both of which are freaking awesome.

Answer 8

The Delai LLama.

Answer 9

We have aquatic mammals. Dogs are bastardized and retarded by human interference. Cats too. Animals will respond to their environment, and each other. Hummingbirds will get faster.

Answer 10

lol-thanks-i will laugh about this for the rest of the day-i could predict for you on what everything will become but bet i be wrong-keep the peace old hippie here