how did organisms learn or gain the mechanism required for death ?

Question

I'm not familiar by any means with evolution, but have learned how the first organisms learned or gained the mechanism required for death. I see how death is needed for population control but how could an organism develop mechanisms for death ?

Answer 1

Death of an organism defiantly is a natural control for overcrowding mechanism by which they attain death or age of death is in their biological clock that is for each cell to die it is definite for a cell after certain cell division cycle they die may be they lose some very important vital component in each cycle
the example is from a cell but in case of organism and organ system it also depends upon synchronising ability of organism with other vital part and this may lead them towards death after certain period of time.

Answer 2

Life, living organisms, have two main priorities: survival and reproduction. Basically, to survive long enough to reproduce, replacing itself. Once a life form has reproduced successfully, life process are complete. The organism may survive till another breeding season. However, the majority of life forms on Earth have very short life spans. Few animals in Nature live beyond 3 to 5 years. The basic plan is to survive long enough to reproduce. Once that occurs there is simply no need for that organism to continue.

Remember also, in Nature, few things live to see a natural death. Natural death in wild animals is NOT a means of population control. The majority of death that occurs in Nature is from forms other than natural.

Unfortunately, we humans have taken charge of our existence. We are no longer a part of the natural world. We are no longer susceptible to predation. We have cures for diseases. We are protected from the environment. So, the general ecological and environmental rules effecting an animals survival, do not have such a great effect on humans.

Answer 3

They didn't learn it or deliberately acquire it - it is more of an accidental by-product of the way cells divide and DNA replicates.

In effect bacteria don't die of old age because they just keep dividing, every generation being a clone of the previous one. But they change and evolve because their methods of ensuring accurate copying and replication of DNA is not as good as ours.

We have better methods of ensuring accurate replication of DNA but at the same time our DNA can only be copied and re-copied within our bodies a finite number of times because each generation of DNA in our cells becomes shortened because the copying enzymes cannot reach right to the end of the DNA molecule. Eventually further copying is not possible and so cellular death is not replaced, resulting in eventual death by ageing.

In addition to this self-repair mechanisms within our bodies degenerate over time and DNA mutations are accumulated, both resulting in death by old age.

As far as evolution and the the genes that drive evolution are concerned, none of this matters because by the time the ageing process starts our genes have already been passed on to the next generation. This means there is no evolutionary pressure to ensure longevity beyond reproductive maturity and in fact, as you state, death helps ensure the success of the next generation by removing competition for resources, habitat etc

Answer 4

There's no need for such an mechanism; in order to die one doesn't need any special mechanism, as death eventually comes naturally for everything alive with the process of slow degradation of organic bounds that join certain organism in an unit capable of life !