2006-07-11 00:36:29 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You are quite right, if an animal needs a characteristic it does not have in order to survive, it must die. It's as simple as that. That's why extinctions give weight to evolution. Species change when a small number of individuals within a species group have enough characteristics to avoid death. They may move, they may have some characteristic like being able to swim or having longer legs, or the ability to digest whatever food is nearest, they may just be lucky. The fact that most of their species dies out means that the remaining population has the essential survival characteristics concentrated among it, meaning it will pass more certainly into the next generations. This increases the size of the population able to survive whatever difficult conditions killed off their less well adapted ancestors. Over millions of years these changes create the vast array of species we see today, and account for the fossil record of extinction buried beneath us.
Of course, if you are scared of evolution because you think it means there might not be a god after all, then no amount of clarity will satisfy you. This is the explanation nevertheless.
2006-07-11 00:53:10 · answer #1 · answered by Bad Liberal 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The species that survive for the longest are the ones that are the most adaptable, or the least specialized. Evolution takes a long time to happen, but it begins with small changes in individuals of the species. If a species doesn't evolve in time to fill it's needs, YES, it dies out, many species have.
2006-07-11 07:41:32 · answer #2 · answered by devouring_wind 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it was needed now, it would have evolved already - if there is a sudden change - yes the species will die out. It has happened to many - like when the Europeans who were largely Christians started Hunting as a sport - lot of species did extinct - they didn't have time to evolve to react before they were brutalized.
2006-07-11 07:49:01 · answer #3 · answered by R G 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't work like that. Evolution does not foresee a need and work towards it. Mutation provides the variations and natural selection preserves that which is the most successful in any particular time and place. As you can see from the fossil record, species do indeed die out - in fact they all do. I can guarantee that the further back you look in time, the less likely it is that you will find anything like today's species of plants and animals, and if you go back far enough, every single kind of organism that existed then no longer exists now.
2006-07-11 07:40:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only those that don't exhibit the characteristics that are needed. For example, giraffes with longer necks could reach more food so giraffes with short necks eventually died out. In other words, over a period of time the norm for giraffes evolved into what we have now
2006-07-11 07:42:46 · answer #5 · answered by Nemesis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yet another problem the evolutions face.
It takes so much FAITH to believe in the ever changing science of evolution.
2006-07-11 07:43:56 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋