Eve1ry time most cells in an eukaryote cell organism divide a snippet of telomere is lost...?>>?

Question

...this is thought to result in cell senescence and apoptosis (cell death). Do you think this fact is enough to discredit Darwin's process of natural selection? Death would therefore be programmed into the geneome and be somrthing that had to be adapted for. What would be the selection advantage of death?

Death in order to even appear in the genome would have had to be adapted for. Every organism dies so it would have had to appear early in the history of evolution say in prokaryote change to eukaryote. It also would have had to be maintained in all eukaryote genomes. It would certainly have been a selective advantage for an organism to be immortal and thus be able to reproduce an infinite number of times.Some prokaryote organisms are nearlt immortal by cloning themselves.

There are ubits of selection but these..."must be defined as interactors, not as replicators." "Selection demands plurification, not faithful replication."

Stephen J. Gould; "The structure of evolutionary theory."; Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA, 2002, pp. 622-623

There is nothing wrong with being weak; in a final struggle for dominance they are often the ones who survive by refusing to fight.

Merry Christmas!

Answer 1

There is no selective advantage to death, it's inevitable. However, evolution does adapt (or destroy) a species in response to death. Procreation (frequency/maturity at birth/parenting requirements), injury repair, and illness resistance are all functions of evolution.

And there are animals that have actually defeated this condition. Certain fish and reptiles will never die of old age, and in fact never stop growing, until they are killed by "unnatural" forces. Do a little research on Sturgeon.

Don't forget that there are trees as old as 2,000 years old, and Coral reefs that haven't been aged yet. Even the life span increase of human beings from 30 years to 80 years (so far) would be evidence that humans evolution is addressing your scenario.

I assume that since there are examples of living creatures that have adapted to your scenario, you will now agree with Darwin.

Answer 2

Boy, are you confused. As you have been told, replication is genetic immortality, not an organisms survival beyond that. Death is "programed ", sort of, and that is the selection advantage; superior fitness into replication. That is the whole ball of evolutionary wax, both of natural and sexual selection. I suggest you start at the beginning to erase your ignorance. " The Selfish Gene ", by Richard Dawkins, is a good place to start.

PS Stephen J. Gould is NOT the source I would be quoting. Besides, an appeal to authority argument is weak by definition. Though a referral to authority for critical review is another matter. You still need to repair ignorance> I suggest you stop looking for " a big brother authority " and get busy.

Answer 3

The germ line is the notable exception. Death makes room for the next generation. Given two species, one immortal, one mortal, and the immortal line has an absolute advantage, except at one small niche, you could expect the following: the immortal line would fill the ecosystem, and the mortal species would struggle in its little niche. The immortal species would barelt reproduce once it filled the enviroment. The struggling mortal species would run through generation after generation until it either adapts to its niche or can outcompete the immortals.

Answer 4

Intriguing but total crap. Death is not what natural selection seeks to avoid. Natural selection seeks to insure the procreation of the species. Thereby, making it avoid threats of the specie not proliferating.

Answer 5

The general thermodynamic tendency to entropy is used (overcome) by organisms to distribute energy by way of being open systems (they eat and breath). Similarly, sexuality (another open system) is used to overcome telomere degeneration, and the changes you suggest seem to renforce the possibility of mutation, thereby supporting evolutionary science.