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On the Origin of Species

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/r/evolution

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0

Is there any evolutional benefit in snoring?

Why do people snore? Are there other animal that snore?

17 Comments
2023/06/04
12:27 UTC

8

Why do organisms seek to survive?

Most organisms seem to have a general will to survive, but why are organisms concerned with their own survival or the survival of their species? While some may say that it’s because they would die otherwise, why do organisms care one way or the other if they die, especially non-sentient organisms who are not even aware of their life or death?

31 Comments
2023/06/02
04:33 UTC

23

Is it likely that morals were a result of evolution?

In my opinion, it makes sense that morals would develop to increase the chance of survival. The species is probably much more likely to survive if the individuals in it feel an obligation to protect and help the fellow members of their species, or at least direct population.

27 Comments
2023/06/02
03:19 UTC

1

Are all abilities/features of an animal supposed to have come about via evolution?

I've always thought about this when I speak to someone about evolution or when I am just randomly thinking about things. This is a hard question for me to word but I'm going to try... So let's use the human brains dopamine system as an example. Your body consumes or does something beneficial your hormones create dopamine... your brain feels happier and so you remember hey do this again. Now when I think about the millions of complex processes similar to this I want to know is, when evolution is considered would we than say some humans did not have this system and survived less successfully therefore died off etc etc. How the hell could it be possible that through mutations or other adaptations does something like that come into existence randomly. Than consider the fine tuning that would need to happen. Different more successful iterations.

How can that be possible? Do I make any sense? Evolution can't explain complex adaptations in an advanced organisms. Is there another theory or explanations I don't know about? Please help and share. This stuff keeps me up at night. Thanks!

14 Comments
2023/06/01
00:31 UTC

1

Could llamas or alpacas become something like horses? A large pack animal that could also carry people quickly or long distances in the New world?

I've been curious about this for a while, I understand llamas are related to camels, is there some trait that llamas have that would make it somewhat unfeasible to selectively breed horse-like traits in a reasonable span of time? Like If humans had arrived in the Americas sooner or if the new world hadn't encountered the old world for several 10s of thousands more years (I know this is also difficult to imagine). Thank you to anyone who answers

9 Comments
2023/05/31
22:15 UTC

6

If the Giant Panda evolved their “thumb” to facilitate being herbivorous, why didn’t they evolve herbivore teeth?

The Giant Panda’s pseudo-thumb was a positive characteristic because it helped them strip bamboo leaves more effectively. Why didn’t evolution select for herbivore teeth since their diet is 99% coarse bamboo leaves? They have carnivore canines and incisors and only rudimentary cuspids. It seems evolutionary pressure on dental adaptation to diet would be much greater than claw adaptation to moderately aid food gathering.

14 Comments
2023/05/31
17:04 UTC

35

The Blind Watchmaker

I am (re)reading The Blind Watchmaker. It's still such an amazing book. I was wondering if there have been advances in our understanding of evolution since it was written. Not necessarily errors in the book, but maybe gaps that were not appreciated when it was written.

17 Comments
2023/05/29
11:12 UTC

2

Why did Deer and Squirrels (based on what is known now) never naturally evolve into existence on Australian soil?

What about Australia's environment blocked those two?

10 Comments
2023/05/29
02:18 UTC

1

Evolution of consciousness and is it a product of evolving of senses?

I saw that consciousness first ever evolved because a living body wanted to move from an area of no food to an area with food/energy this obviously was very advantageous rather than just randomly moving randomly around in hopes of food. To find food more efficiently they would need to develop senses which allowed them to do so. This created some sort of awareness of environmental , we are conscious of what matters, we aren’t conscious of the size of the universe or the cells in our body but I still cannot wrap my head around that a certain alignment of atoms lead to consciousness, will we ever even understand consciousness? I know this area can lead to some abstract and unscientific explanations but I’m hear for it.

21 Comments
2023/05/28
14:12 UTC

1

How do bees evolve?

So this question came up, and I needed to figure out how to answer it. How did bees evolve? For example when it comes to stingers: When they sting something, they die, so they can't pass down the best stingers to the queen. The queen mates in mass orgy, so she isn't exactly being selective. I read that some of them kept it from a wasp ancestor, but how does the stinger stay so good? How do bees continue to evolve?

21 Comments
2023/05/28
04:39 UTC

4

Is this cladogram of the 9 major animal phyla correct?

Sorry, I know this isn't the standard post for this sub.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1044790968496427048/1112217645475958894/image.png

Is this a correct representation of, left to right, chordata, echinodermata, arthropoda, nematoda, annelida, mollusca, platyhelminthes, cnidaria, porifera? And does it make sense for a tattoo (this might be a stupid idea)?

(I drew it on MS Paint so the spacing is off)

5 Comments
2023/05/28
03:42 UTC

23

Why are plants green

I get that it’s because of chlorophyll .But why is chlorophyll green? I know that green is at the middle of the light spectrum and I think that’s got something to do with it.

20 Comments
2023/05/27
22:45 UTC

4

Babies evolved to cry whenever they needed something because it’s the most attention grabbing way to do so?

Imagine if they laughed if they where uncomfortable or tired no one would care. Having such an alarming , high pitched voice would allow the needs of the baby to be full filled asoon as possible as it’s very annoying also. No idea if this true and haven’t searched it up either just wondering what you guys think of this.

25 Comments
2023/05/27
19:23 UTC

4

Human adaptation

If two straight couples of Northern European descent moved to somewhere hot below the equator with their children, stayed there, and the children grew up to get married, and continued these two parallel family lines on and on and on and on, what would happen? Would they eventually adapt to their new environment?? Same as a reverse situation. Coming from the hot regions below the equator to somewhere cold.

10 Comments
2023/05/27
18:52 UTC

41

Crocodilians are part of the archosaur lineage that includes dinosaurs and birds as well as a number of other groups. Most crocodilians are large and have bony plates in the skin. These characteristics have contributed to an extensive fossil record that extends back to the middle of the Triassic.

0 Comments
2023/05/26
16:30 UTC

0

I am Confused on How Humans Shrank their Tailbone

So, let me get this straight, humans use to have tails primarily for balance, yet when our primate ancestors began to stand upright, how did it shrink? Does each generation of primate watch their tail shrink little by little? If so, how is our DNA aware that it needs to shrink?

To parallel this logic, as an extreme example, if I decide to not move my right arm for the rest of my life, and I tell my son not to move is right arm for the rest of his life, and so on so forth, by this logic, our DNA will shrink our right arm overtime, since it serves no daily function.

45 Comments
2023/05/26
02:30 UTC

4

Why has E.coli changed so little in over 100 years?

So, E.coli have been known about since the 19th century. Since bacteria reproduce very rapidly that would mean there have been enough generations of e.coli to equal millions of years worth of generations in humans or other animals with much longer life cycles.

I know that taxonomic terms are not always the greatest metrics of morphologic change because of its arbitrariness but unless there are instances of new genera developing from e.coli that I’m not aware of it seems like e.coli has changed very little morphologically despite tens of thousands of generations. I know there have been significant changes that have occurred in isolated e.coli populations like in the Lenski experiments but why have E.coli changed so little that biologists still refer to them as such? Is it just due to taxonomic convention or has comparatively little actually changed?

7 Comments
2023/05/26
01:39 UTC

19

How did orangutans reach Borneo?

My SO is an historian, but remains baffled by this question. We'd appreciate any insights or info!

If orangutans are great apes, and all great apes ultimately evolved from East African ancestors, how did orangutans make their way to Borneo and Sumatra across thousands of miles of hostile ecosystems?

Or, conversely, did great apes evolve separately on two different places on Earth — one in Africa and the other in East Asia?

Evolutionary trees I've found online indicate that orangutans' ancestors indeed originated in the far distant past in East Africa. But modern-day orangutans are not fully ambulatory, and have a highly specific ecosystem in which they must live. So how could they possibly have traversed the vast distances from Africa to Indonesia and somehow settle in their current form?

I've read many articles and essays about orangutans, but this detail is never answered or addressed.

26 Comments
2023/05/25
16:22 UTC

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