How long will it take my cold to evolve into a mammal?

Question

If the theory is correct.

Answer 1

Probably never.

First of all, a cold virus is not actually a living organism, but is nothing more than rogue DNA. Viruses are thought to have "de-evolved" from living matter. They are sections of chromosomes which broke away with enough genetic information to be able to replicate themselves inside cells and also be able to survive outside cells. Most viruses do not survive very long, however.

Life was most likley very much like viruses before it formed self contained cells. However, this was a period when the environment itself was somewhat similar to the inside of a cell. Once actual cells evolved, they changed their environment by literally surrounding it with billions of tiny cell walls. The remainder was a sterile intercellular space maintained in such a fashion because any nutrients were immediately concentrated inside actual living cells.

Now that intercellular space was essentially a vacuum, it meant nothing could live there as naked strands of DNA. Any cellular material without the protection of some kind of cell wall was nothing but snack food for the ancestors of bacteria. Viruses are essentially inert outside their cell host. They evolve inside cells, but only because they are skeletons in the hopes their hosts prefer meat over bones in their diets.

Supposing an actual cell could somehow evolve from a virus inside another cell and not get digested, then one might assume it was inevitable it would evolve into some form of multicellular life. There is no reason it would become a mammal, though. Evolution always takes the path of least resistance, and once a pattern is established, the pattern remains.

If the pattern is somehow completely destroyed, there is no reason the same pattern will evolve again. There are an infinite number of ways of solving any particular problem, and when this is a series of ongoing steps, the possibility that one particular outcome will be achieved is nearly zero.

Mammals look the way they do because they are repeating a pattern laid down hundreds of millions of years ago before vertebrates and even arthropods existed. The cambrian sea was the home of many bizzare creatures whose body shapes do not exist today. It was only a chance event that one of the survivors would have two eyes and a tubular gut.

This means it is just as likley that some form of land animal might have evolved with a top and bottom, but no front or back. Such a body plan is known as bilaterial symmetry and the only animals which still have this anatomy are starfish and other echinoderms. In other words, there is no special reason I turned out looking like a gingerbread man. I could have just as easily resembled a chocolate chip cookie.

Answer 2

Of course the question is nonsense, but if you were to rephrase it to read how long did it take virus-like strands of phenotypic RNA to evolve into the first mammal (the first mammals being ca. 235 million years ago), then the answer would be close to 4,000,000,000 years. That's a long time.

Answer 3

Your cold will never evolve into a mammal. Evolution isn't directed toward anything other than continued reproduction.

Answer 4

Who can say?

Mammalian traits were just luck of the draw -- evolution might come up with a completely different path to take, the next time around...

Never assume that humanity was a necessary end result of evolution...

Answer 5

8 to 10 million years. You can help by providing a warm nurturing environment for it. Don't take nyquil or any of the other OTC meds for this problem.

Answer 6

Feels that way sometimes, doesn't it?