What external stimulus caused living creatures to develope hearing if it didn't know that there was sound?

Question

Just like light and warmth was the external stimulus for the 1st living creatures to develope sight, what external stimuli was the stimulus to evolve hearing? Especially if a creature did not know that there was something to be heard. WHat was the stimulus for smell?

Answer 1

sound is just the vibration of the milieu

even organisms as simple as bacteria will "feel" those vibrations because their energy reaches the membrane.

in more complex organisms, clearly the vibrations are also felt. Now those organisms which, by the chance of random mutations (often, but not always, triggered by high energy gamma rays screwing up a bit of gene transmission during the DNA replication process), ended up with an area of their body becoming MORE sensitive to vibrations, would typically find they had gained an advantage.

If you're a predator, as a prey will often make the milieu vibrate as it moves, feeling vibrations better (i.e. hearing) will make you better able to catch prety.

if you're a prey, feeling vibrations from an approaching predator gives you a better chance to escape.


same with eyes - detecting lighter from darker areas proved to be an advantage, then being able to "see" the prey / food / predator, etc.


as for smell, well, "smell" is just the detection of molecules of stuff diluted in the milieu. And again, bacteria have that, to an extent. And again, as organisms grew more complex, those who, by chance, ended up being better able to detec molecules emitted by prey / food / predator, were more successful so their genes spread more.


hope this helps

a

Answer 2

One more point for the theory of intelligent design. Creatures with a brain the size of a pea couldn't figure out how to grow something as intricate as an ear!!!!!

Answer 3

sound is a vibration
the animals that developed better senses of vibration senses survived and eventually developed ears so the could detect where it was coming from
smell is more difficult and even bypasses the frontal cortex so it can stimulate older memories

Answer 4

I Think it Confers a Great Selective Advantage, So Evolution.