So guys, evolutionary question.?

Question

I was talking with my friend, and we were wondering: just how did the heart come to exist? Sure, there were single-celled organisms, which mutated to multicellular organism. However, how could an organism go from having no heart to then having one? I mean, how could an organism mutate in such a way??

Just to say, I am atheist: I genuinely want to know, lol. I'm not trying to outwit you.

Narraga, or whatever you are called,

Your answer is fundamentally flawed by the fact that, regardless of whether Boris was feeling heartbroken (amazingly without a heart) or not, there would not have been a GP there, because GPs evolved later! What an elementary mistake.. tsk.

Answer 1

Good question! It is hard to imagine such a thing, but there are simpler versions that help simpler animals survive. For example, in the simplest of worms, there is a muscle whose job is to push the interstitial fluid (eg worm blood) around. Here is an article that starts to explain it:

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/0400_feature1.html

There are other articles that go further in detail, but unfortunately you need a subscription for them. Search on "heart evolution" or similar topics.

Answer 2

It is often hard to imagine the amount of time that goes by and the number of generations involved in evolutionary change.

The heart didn't pop up in one quick mutation any more than the eye did. That doesn't mean it is impossible for something very complex to develop over 100,000 generations. It happens in very small steps where there is some advantage for a tiny mutation to take hold.

I don't personally know exactly how the heart may have developed, but others who are weighing in here have a good explanation. To totally grasp some of these complex systems developing, it requires understanding how short each of our little lives is in the overall scheme of things. Like the 4 billion years since the earth took shape compared to the 80 years you or I might live.

Answer 3

The question is rather, why not? How does lightning keep missing us? Why do we forget certain people's names all the time but not others? Spontaneous generation? Selective ignorance? What does it all mean? If you looked into the DNA of that organism just before it evolved its heart, you would see the markers which would provide the inclination to progress precisely toward that evolution you ask about; namely, the creation of a heart. We do not have a tail nor gills any longer, and some would add, nor wings. You are chatting with your friend about some of the wonderful mysteries of Life itself, and even as we talk about it here on Yahoo! Answers, scientists are in their laboratories finding ways to give you exact answers to your questions which even you will totally accept. I frankly look forward to it.

Answer 4

Single celled creature rely on diffusion across membranes to effect respiration disposal of waste etc. a larger muticellular organism needs specialized cell groups to carry out these processes. For example muscle cells which contract and relax to allow movement externally and internally to effect the transport of nutrients and waste within the organism. My guess is that the heart developed from the upper section of the gut of simple invertebrate creatures. When these animals colonised the land or swampy mangrove areas, natural selection would favour adaptions which could carry oxygen round the body from their simple lungs using a fluid called blood. How this simple one/two chambered organ developed into the sophisticated 4 chamber synchronised dual circulation pump to cope with the higher metabolic demands of mammals is beyond the scope of this article!

Answer 5

First you start out with an organism so small that nutrients can diffuse to all the cells without a circulatory system. Then you get vessels. Then the vessels get muscles to control the flow. Then the muscles contract in part of veins to move fluid. Then valves form and the muscles expand. Tens of thousands of generations later you have a primitive heart.

Answer 6

Gday

The first single cell creature living in the primeval goo that developed a rudimentary heart was called Boris and his significant other (Boris 2) had just left to explore new horizons in another patch of goo - he was heartbroken untill he was consumed by a twin cellular organism 3 seconds later . Big Boris as we will call him, developed a pain in his digestional tract and went to see his G,P Dr Boris the 3 celled organism - who diagnosed Heartburn as Boris's condition had started a chain reaction of Heartfelt pain in all his companions in the little goo puddle , millions of years later ' Boris syndrome' is just as common name as it was then.

P.S I,m a Borisonian


I Know,,,,,,,,,,Night shift just rolls over me and -----blah blah----

Answer 7

The need to be able to move much quicker made it necessary to evolve a system 4 pumping blood around the body much more rapidly. But this tuck many thousands of years.

Answer 8

it takes billions of years, there are some very primitive life forms that have mechanisms very similar to hearts after all its just a pump,

You beleive that all this magically appeared, and if it was intelligent design then that means god was just another scientist from another race or planet, making him an extra terrestrial so who made them ?

Answer 9

Think all the answers missed the point..

The Earth has a simple heart.
We have broken it.

Answer 10

Jesus made us sorry