How does evolution explain?

Question

How some animals look. What is the purpose for any of these animals looks.
Hammerhead shark
Zebras
Tigers
Leopards
Toucans
I just find it hard to believe that the vast numbers of different life, all the diversity, from so many different plants and animals and people, all started out the same way. How much could the world have changed for life to first be dinosaurs, and later human and all the rest of it.

JP
zebras and tigers? camo? how do the markings of zebras and tigers hide them in their natural surroundings?

How does a zebra know that it's stripes will distort the vision of it's predators? How would evolution do this?

Patrone, I'm not against evolution. I too believe that evolution and creation can work together. I think first was creation though.

How do these animals know, so that their genes can change, what is needed to make them safer?

hahahaha eldad. I love you and have missed you. At times it sucks to be a dumbas-, brain dead believer.
It is what it is eh eldad?
Hope you are doing well.

Answer 1

Et tu, rozzibearus?

Life is incredibly diverse, and part of the reason is that all life is interconnected. Changes in one species trigger changes in another. The world is incredibly dynamic, and life had billions of years to evolve.

Please consider reading some of Richard Dawkins' books about evolution.

In the meantime: http://www.dhushara.com/book/evol/trevol.jpg

Answer 2

Yet another one with absolutely no understanding of what evolution is.

Evolution is a process, first and foremost. There is no end point. There is no such thing as a "fully evolved Zebra" or human for that matter.

An individual zebra does not have to know his stripes protect him at all. The ZEBRA didn't choose the stripes, no more than you chose to have two legs and two arms. Natural selection "chose" the stripes because the stripes worked better for zebras than an alternative. The gene "for" stripes would have offered greater benefit than a gene "for" an all white coat (for example) because the stripes would sometimes confuse a predator which would allow the zebra a greater chance of escape (and living, and therefor reproducing) as compared to an all white zebra. Because of this, the gene(s) "for" stripes would become more and more dominant throughout the genepool.

This is how natural selection works.

Zebras, tigers, leopards, and toucans all look the way they do because the way they look works for zebras, tigers, leopards and toucans, respectively. Hammerhead sharks too.

Tigers and leopards have the camoflage, zebras have the optical illusion thing going on. A male toucan's vibrant colours probably has more to do with attracting a mate rather than camo. The more attractive the toucan, the more other toucans will want to mate with him, the more chances he has to reproduce, the more successful his genes will probably be in the genepool. Makes you wonder why many human women wear makeup?

As much as the world HAS changed in billions of years, you don't need to have a drastic change (or any really) in environment in order for evolution to occur.

Pick up a copy of "The Blind Watchmaker" if you're really interested. Otherwise do some reading online.

Answer 3

> "I just find it hard to believe that the vast numbers of different life, all the diversity, from so many different plants and animals and people, all started out the same way."

I don't think you understand the scales of TIME involved. Humans think in terms of decades, maybe centuries at most.

Now imagine ten-thousand *centuries* ... that's only 1 million years. Still a drop in the bucket.

Now imagine a million centuries ... 100 million years. Now we're starting look at some real TIME ... but that's still not that much.

The earth is about 4.6 billion years old. That's 46 million *centuries*. Granted, multicellular life has "only" been around for about 10 million of those centuries (about 1 billion years) ... but still, when you consider that kind of TIME, then the diversity between zebras and toucans doesn't seem so extreme.

Or to put it another way, what is the alternative? Is it really *easier* to believe that all those species of animals ... zebras, tigers, leopards, toucans ... were salvaged on a boat floating for a year on a flooded planet? Is that really a more "reasonable", "logical", "believable" theory?

Answer 4

Evolution creates this vast diversity in much the same way that languages develop: time, distance, and environmental necessity. With languages, if a group of people who speak the same language part company and split into two groups, and one group moves away to a very different environment, the people in this group will develop new words to suit the needs of the new environment. Over a lot of time, the pronunciation changes, and this doesn't take a lot of time really. Look at the different pronunciations of English just within the United States. And consider how different the language has become throughout the world. Time, distance and necessity bring about change. This isn't the whole evolutionary picture by a long shot, but it might give you a flavor of how and why evolution takes place with species on an organic level.

I hope this helps to clarify your confusion.

Bright blessings!
Lady Morgana

Answer 5

Oh, yeah... "God" explains it soooo much better. Why didn't I see it? ... This is all Googleable; e.g. < toucan evolution >

Hammerhead: Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain the adaptive significance of this unusual head morphology but few have been empirically tested. It has been suggested that the cephalofoil evolved from the slightly flattened head typical of many carcharhinid sharks, and acts as a bowplane that provides hydrodynamic lift and increases maneuvering capabilities. Other hypotheses for the evolution of the cephalofoil involve potential advantages of spacing sensory structures at the lateral ends of the head (eyes, nostrils) or across the surface of the head (lateral line, electroreceptors). These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but each emphasizes a single factor that might have driven evolution of the cephalofoil.

Zebras, tigers, leopard and most any spotted / striped pelts blend in better in grasses, bush etc. - just like military camoflage it breaks up a contiguous whole to make it less recognizable.

[Edit]: You do not understand evolution - just like you, no animal needs "know" anything - evolution is not related to this.

Answer 6

I can understand your question. Clearly, you need to research evolution so you can understand the big picture. The key to evolution is that change occurs (mutations) regularly, and over time, a species is going to look much different. The changes that were advantageous allow some members of a species to live, while the others, whose changes were not an advantage, died. The combination of mutations and natural selection make up evolution, and of course millions of years are necessary for all of this to occur. Most of it is evident in the fossil record.

Answer 7

You are mainly referring to coloring and patterns which all play a very integral and important part in each of those animals lives. They had to adapt, by evolution, to blend into there surrondings for survial and hunting techniques. Just like humans are differnet colors bases on the region they live and the amount of sun exposure. Diversity is just the beauty of it all coming to together in the world.

Answer 8

Hammerhead Shark: By moving the eyes further apart, depth perception is increased.

Zebras, Tigers, Leopards: Camoflage

Toucans: Breeding selection

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Stripes break up their natural contours. In the case of the zebra, this makes it harder for predators to single one out of the herd -- it looks like one continuous blob of white and black. In the case of the tiger, when concealed in bushes, it breaks up their pattern in general, or especially in grasses.

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A zebra doesn't "know" this. Evolution doesn't "know" it either.

Imagine a herd of 100 zebras, some of them have stripes, some are solid colors. The stripes make it hard to pick out one from the stripers, but from the solids, it's easy to pick one out. Which do you think a predator is thus more likely to kill?

Since there will be fewer solids to procreate, stripes will become more common, and predation will continue to lower the number of solids.

No intelligent involvement required.

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By the way -- I mean no offense when I say that it is clear you have some significant misconceptions of the nature of evolution. I find that many people in your shoes appreciate the following site for its plain English description of some fairly complicated concepts: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

Answer 9

There were many other critters around when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Answer 10

This doesn't answer your question, but this may help:

evolution is merely science's way of explaining our origins, it doesn't attempt to disprove our approve God/BIBLE. Science just uses purely observable and testable methods to find answers.

Religion on the other hand uses spirituality to help us find our origins. The Holy Spirit guides Christians to the truth, GOD.
the two can go hand in hand if we allow them to.