Can somebody explain Evolution to me?

Question

Really, im serious. No smart comments and I dont need links. Please explain all this to me.

Where did the mutation come from?

Answer 1

***Remember this is THEORY not scientific Law***

In biology, evolution is the process in which some of a population's inherited traits become more common, at the expense of others, from generation to generation. This is usually measured in terms of the variant genes, known as alleles, that encode the competing traits. As differences in and between populations accumulate over time, speciation, the development of new species from existing ones, can occur. All known organisms, including extinct species, are related by common descent through numerous speciation events starting from a single ancestor.

Mutation within genes, migration between populations, and the reshuffling of genes during sexual reproduction creates variation in organisms. While a certain random component, known as genetic drift, is involved, the variation is also acted on by natural selection, in which organisms which happen to have combinations of traits that help them to survive and reproduce more than others in the population will, on average, have more offspring, passing more copies of these beneficial traits on to the next generation. This leads to advantageous traits becoming more common in each generation, while disadvantageous traits become rarer. Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions.

The theory of evolution by natural selection was first put forth in detail in Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. In the 1930s, Darwinian natural selection was combined with Mendelian inheritance to form the modern evolutionary synthesis. With its enormous explanatory and predictive power, this theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, providing a unifying explanation for the diversity of life on Earth.

EDIT
Mutation is a naturally occuring phenomenon by which genetic code is altered (broken). Vastly overwelming possibility of this being a BAD thing. Usually fatal in nature.

Answer 2

Evolution is process by which things changed naturally, without any known outside help. By that I mean, for example, turning prarie dogs into house pets by breeding, taming and domesticating. THAT is NOT evolution.

Human evolution at a simple level, for example, would be the vanishing of, say, the tonsils over time. Which might be happened, we can't be sure because in humans it takes a long time.

Social Evolution is, for example, the development of desolate area into an agrarian society without an edict from a leader.

I would not classify the terraced mountains of China a form of Social evolution because Mao demanded it.

I might call the developmetn of the "farm belt" in the American midwest slightly a product of social evolution because it was done by random settlers who were largley unaffillated and the wanted to live far apart and have kept it that way.

The development of Manhattan might also be a fact of social evoltuion as it was a port of entry and a center of commerce and so commerce displaced all the trees and grass that were once there.

Evolution is also NOT mutation. Bird flu jumping to humans is not always classified as evolution, but as a revolution or mutation. A freak occurance, although this could, indeed, be evoltuion. The thing is science can't define the exact process of how it happens.

Evolution, thus, is currently a verb not a noun. It's not like Astronomy or Medicine. It's an action, a process. This is not to say it might not become a noun, but to become a noun you must establish laws of behavior and process that work better than 50% of the time.

Astronomy, for example, was able to predict the exact position of Pluto long before it was seen by anyone, by using the laws of bodies in motion and the plottings of orbits.

Biological evolution, which is a action process, doesn't have well defined laws. We don't know how genes change or what they do. If it comes from a BLUE PRINT such as the GENOME then it IS NOT EVOLUTION but design or willful intent and not a NATURALLY CHANGING PROCESS.

You can't call growing old evolution in a strict sense, because everyone does it. It's a regulated process.

When some people STOP growing old for no known reason, THEN you have an evolutionary change.

You can't rightfully call SAVANTS evolution, UNLESS you can demonstrate that this is our future and down the line in say 500,000 years all children will be born Motzarts and able to play piano the moment they can reach the keys or add a column of math in a second.

You can't call Global Warming an evolutionary process becuase it seems to be man made. If volcanic activies were the cause of it, then it would be geological evolutioin.

To view evolution on humans in a DArwinian sense you have to be able to demonstrate the actual process, explain it all and predict something about what will happen next.

You should be able to see "footprints" or "pre-prints" and be able to say: Those Genes. Watch them carefully over the next 10,000 years they are exhibiting signs that they will eventually change characteristics.

We haven't reached that point yet.

Chickens don't fly very well so why do they still have feathers and wings. Evolution should dictate that they ONCE FLEW or came from something (what a Duck?) that once flew and eventually nature should make them less like birds and more like something else.

We can't see anything scientifically that allows us to make that prediction or show how it will work.

Chickens might stay the same for 500,000 years.

Now you have to also explain why some things evolve and others don't.

The Noun Evolution, is an infant only 150 years old in a world in which only plants, some insects and viruses change.

We definately has some SUSPECTED things, like African Killer Bees changing (evolution) due to migration, but we STILL CAN'T EXPLAIN how the process works.

If people in rainforrests evolve with black skins, why weren't the Mayans black as well.

If they migrated and others migrated, why are there colors.

A whole slew of unexplainable things.

And you then have a politically correct world that holds science back (see, something other than religion can hold science back) that won't allow scientists to say we are "breeds" of humans, like German Shepard Dogs Vs. Dobermans.

Then it implies HUMANS are a variety of species and then you get back to that some speices are better than others thing.

So Darwinian evolution has a LOT of things to EXPLAIN and it ULTIMATELY has to do it with microscopes, test tubes and proofs. The scientists has to be able to say: THOSE TWO GENES are changing watch them change and I'll tell you how it's working.

Then it has to. Then we have a basis in which to say there is something to Evolution as a thing, not just an action.

So the process SEEMS to exist to a degree, but no fish in our life time has crawled out of the sea, developed 4 legs and barked.

Darwinism says that is a possiblity or porbablilty but it takes 2 million years to happen.

Answer 3

That is too long to fit in this little white box. Basically it says that life started simple and got more complex over a long time. Small changes happen all the time. The changes that make you more likely to survive are more likely to get passed to the next generation.

There is a ton of evidence that this happened.
* Fossils - the order can be determined by stratification alone (no radiological dating) it is unarguable and life started simple and got more complex. Here is a simple chart to show what I mean: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/fossils/succession.html
* Anatomical similarities between species.
* Chemical similarities between species.
* Mitochondrial DNA regressive studies. - This comes only from your mother and the only changes to it are through mutations. These mutations occur at a known rate, and converge world wide 150,000 years ago give or take. If Eve (6000 years ago) was the only female, it would be almost identical world wide. It is not. The flood gives a second bottleneck that matches the facts even less well.
* Geographic distribution of related species. Meaning related species are usually near each other.
* Wisdom Teeth - there isn't room on your jaw for them anymore.
* Your little toe - totally useless. Nice intellegent design here.
* Your appendix - totally useless now but it does digest cellulose in other species.
* Your inner eyelids - They don't even work now, but they do for lots of other animals like house cats. Bet you didn't even know you had 'em.
* Vestigial DNA - meaning chromosomes that we have but don't use, but that used in other species. We have several that other primates use but are totally useless to us.
* The fact that we share so much DNA among species
* There are no wild cows. They evolved through artificial selection and are totally man made.
* Different breeds of dogs, cats, livestock.
* Viruses and bacteria evolve quickly and you can actually see it. This is why you need a new flu shot every year.
* Your tail bone. It is even not that uncommon to be born with a tail.
* Goosebumps - this would be useful if we had fur because it fluffs it and make more insulation. For us it is worthless.
* The hair standing up on your neck when you are frightened. Animals use this to make themselves look bigger. Doesn't work when you walk upright and don't have fur.
* The fact that humans have gotten measurably and heritablely taller since the 1600s
* The fact that humans jaw have gotten measurably and heritablely smaller since the 1600s
* The fact that humans little toes have gotten measurably and heritablely smaller since the 1600s
* Human lower back problems. Your back is intelligently designed to have support from your shoulders.

Answer 4

It's a complex thing. There are different theories on how and why evolution happen. By the way....evolution occuring isn't a theory....that's a fact....the theories are why it occurs. To put it in its most basic form......life adapts and changes because of pressures from the environment. Simple life...like single celled organisms....gradually began to become more complex...this took millions of years....as they became more complex...they became more specialized. Plants, fish, etc. etc. Life changes as the environment changes.....the change is called evolution. Your DNA (DNA is a code in cells that tells the cell what to do....it's built of acids and protiens) is VERY close to that of all living organisms...and very small changes in DNA can lead to radical changes in the organism. The changes are called mutations. Most mutations do not last or survive in the environment. Some do.

I'll give you a practical example of how evolution works.....

In England...before the industrial revolution....the majority of moths were white. After the industrial evolution...with its increase in pollution.....most moths in London became black. The moths changed because black was a better color to survive against the smokier background.

Evolution is fact. Like gravity. The only debate comes in how and why it happens.

Answer 5

short version, homologous structures are made from the same thing, and analogous structures do the same thing (for certain values of "same thing"). So a human hand and arm, a dolphin's flipper, and a bird's wing are homologous, because they all started out as an ancestral fish's fin, and then an early terapod's front leg. A reptile's upper jaw bones are homologous to mammalian ear bones. But a bird's wing, a bat's wing, and a dragonfly's wing are analogous, because they come from different structures. A bird's wing is the entire vertebrate forelimb, a bat's wing is basically the hand/front paw, and a dragonfly doesn't even have vertebrate limbs. Despite the remarkable similarities between them, human eyes and octopus eyes are analogous, because the nearest common ancestor of both didn't have eyes.

Answer 6

A simple example explaining evolution.

A bunch of giraffes with short necks are in the desert (or where ever they live) they eat leaves off trees. the giraffes with short necks can only get to the low down leaves, and so dont get enough food and die out. the occasional longer necked giraffes can eat more leaves and become more healthy and reproduce. in the next generation of girraffes, the longer necked ones again eat more and survive. after quite a few generations, only the longer necked ones are left and so evolution from short neck to long neck like we see today.

Answer 7

Living creatures all have DNA - genetic code - that tells their cells how to develop. Let's take the giraffe. Giraffes started with genes with instructions to build shorter necks, but there was much competition for food, so animals who could reach higher into the trees to get the leaves had a better chance of survival. A couple giraffes with genes with instructions for building slightly longer necks (by chance) come along and, because of their better capability to feed, they breed more. The code for their longer neck gets passed on. These giraffes also have a better chance of survival and some of them have even longer necks. Nature keeps selecting for the giraffes with longer necks because they are able to eat more food than other giraffes.

Along with this longer neck comes a problem - you have to pump blood to your brain. So, some of these giraffes with longer necks are born with slightly larger hearts (by chance, a random mutation of the genetic code for building a heart). Those with larger hearts are better capable of surviving than those long necked giraffes with smaller hearts. While selecting for the giraffes with longer necks, nature narrows the field even further by picking those with larger hearts as well. You can see how, if this continued for thousands, millions, or even billions of years, you could get a lot of changes.

This is how evolution works. A random mutation comes along in the genetic code that happens to be helpful. Because this creature is now better able to survive, they breed more and pass on this trait. All creatures evolve in this way. This within species evolution is called microevolution.

Some people have taken this mechanism and extrapolated it over our geologic timescale and feel like, if given billions of years to work, evolution could have led to millions of different kinds of creatures developing from single celled organisms. This is the Theory of Evolution, or Macro Evolution. While there are plenty of questions left to answer, this scientific theory is currently the best explanation we have, based on scientific evidence, of how we got from the simplest beginnings of life to the myriad of complex creatures we see today.

Answer 8

Biologial organisms adapting to their environment over many years through genetic mutations.

Answer 9

In biology, evolution is change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations.

Answer 10

There is to much info to list

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It all depends on what you are refering to .