Evolution - A serious question.

[Scat]

Trout, evolution has nothing to do with humans coming from apes. That is a huge misconception.

Apes are just a close relative to humans on the phylogeny chart. Our branches are right by eachother but our branch did not grow from their branch.

Where do they meet?

According to this chart just after whales and cows.

 

[Beantown]

Where do they meet?

They have a common ancestor but humans evolved totally separate from ape species.

 

[Darkwing Duck]

With the inherent efficiency of splitting to reproduce, when and how did it diverge into sexual reproduction? Wouldn't the single-celled organisms that lost the ability to reproduce via splitting simply die? What advantage is there in sexual reproduction vs aesexual reproduction?

The answer to the last question is easy, genetic diversity. It is to a species' advantage to have as diverse a genetic code as it can get so that it can overcome changes in the physical or social environment and keep reproducing. A species that only reproduces through mitosis has likely the same genetic code in every single organism, and if something happens that would kill off one organism, it would kill all in the species.

Answer to the second question is yes.

The when and how are more difficult to ascertain. I don't remember the when exactly, but 1 bya (billion years ago) is a time that catches my memory. It's probably findable on a web search. I'm trying to remember my fossil record course in college and dates get blurry.

The how is from I last remember a bit speculatory and hypothetical. Non-human evolution was much less of a focus than human evolution for me in college, so I can't speak much there.

 

[TroutBum]

lol, so I get chastised for not wanting to get involved, and then when I do, get chastised for getting involved.

Why not start a thread on whether people believe in gravity, or continental drift, or snow?

Bwahahaha, awesome.

Congrats on taking any joy that I was getting from this thread and dumping all over it. I'll head back to the 'stupid personz' forum, sorry professor.













Just kidding, go **** yourself jack hole.

 

[PearlWatson]

According to this chart just after whales and cows.

I thought whales came from bears that fell into the ocean while slurping?

 

[PearlWatson]

Trout, evolution has nothing to do with humans coming from apes. That is a huge misconception.

Apes are just a close relative to humans on the phylogeny chart. Our branches are right by eachother but our branch did not grow from their branch.

Now we don't even grow from the same branch. Damn all these different sects are confusing.

 

[TroutBum]

I will give Hopper some credit, that sig is incredible. ^^

 

[Darkwing Duck]

Now we don't even grow from the same branch. Damn all these different sects are confusing.

lol, so now misinformation and painting the same picture with a different brush are now sects.

Of course, not surprising.

 

[Darkwing Duck]

Bwahahaha, awesome.

Congrats on taking any joy that I was getting from this thread and dumping all over it. I'll head back to the 'stupid personz' forum, sorry professor.

I don't follow. Your getting butthurt at my exasperation at people using the same misguided and intentionally incorrect arguments about what evolution is really doesn't have anything to do with your intelligence.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Moscone, Bail Bonds!

 

[LogGrad98]

The answer to the last question is easy, genetic diversity. It is to a species' advantage to have as diverse a genetic code as it can get so that it can overcome changes in the physical or social environment and keep reproducing. A species that only reproduces through mitosis has likely the same genetic code in every single organism, and if something happens that would kill off one organism, it would kill all in the species.
Answer to the second question is yes.

The when and how are more difficult to ascertain. I don't remember the when exactly, but 1 bya (billion years ago) is a time that catches my memory. It's probably findable on a web search. I'm trying to remember my fossil record course in college and dates get blurry.

Bacteria and viruses are phenomenally successful, with very limited genetic diversity. And as the first single-cell organisms developed the mutation requiring sexual reproduction of some sort, did a "male" a "female" develop at the same time? What was the mechanism that allowed 2 of them to mate to begin passing along separate genetic material? This seems like a fairly substantial jump in mutation and evolution.

I am not being argumentative, just pointing out questions I have always had regarding this topic. My genetics professors had answers, of a sort, but when we got into discussions about the move from aesexual to sexual reproduction and the ascendancy from there of multi-legged - quadriped - bipedal and the transitionary examples the water got very muddy. I have not kept up on it as closely as I would like over the intervening 18 years, and I am sure there have been new discoveries and advances in the theory, but on the fringe, from what I understand, these are the places where we still do not have the best answers. So I am curious if anyone who has more knowledge than me has better answers.


Tangential aside:

Has anyone else read the Uplift Trilogy and the associated books by David Brin? I think this is an interesting take on human evolution.

 

[TroutBum]

This thread is taking a very 'smart' turn, and I'm not sure I approve. Will you college grads please dumb it down a little?

Thanks.