Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
Way to miss my point. I guess I should have used a different example, it's just I was replying to your post in which you used a third arm as an example of your own point so I thought it would be more relatable for you. Yes, I did say "if it was", thus implying that it isn't. Basic English there. I said I'm thinking it's not because I don't fucking know for sure, I haven't studied human biology extensively at all. For all I know, someone could have come back and said that actually the human body could support a third arm. But it was never my belief that it could. So I suppose I was giving myself an out, somewhat, but it doesn't matter because I was just communicating a hypothetical example of how a mutation could lead to evolution of a species given the right circumstances. My circumstance was "if it was beneficial to have a third arm", and then I stated that I do not believe it is. The specific example I used is not relevant at all, yet you have referenced it multiple times since then, believing that it somehow negates what myself and others are saying. My intention was never to try to claim that having a third arm is a beneficial mutation for a human. I figured you'd be able to understand but since not, I'll come up with another example that hopefully you won't feel the desire to misinterpret. You did not reply to my point at all, you simply picked on one thing that you misinterpreted and ignored the rest. I don't think you're really reading replies here with any amount of critical thought, because if you had, you would have understood I was just using a made-up example to illustrate my point. I can't comprehend how you could think the point I was trying to make was that humans could support a third arm if you had actually read what I wrote. Are you on a stimulant binge or something dude?
Here, I'll try again to make the exact same point. Imagine a population of light-eating cyanobacteria who get their energy from photosynthesis. These bacteria have no way to sense light so they just float around and some live, and some die because they don't happen to be where light is reaching. Now a random mutation happens where their genetic code causes them to grow a light-sensing protein on their body. These bacteria will now have a distinct advantage as they can detect whether light is getting stronger or weaker as they move, so they can move with purpose towards the light. As a result, these bacteria survive, and thus, reproduce, more often than the others. Over time their gene spreads throughout the population because they are more successful at surviving and reproducing. Over many, many generations, all of the bacteria have this protein and an evolution of the species has happened as a result of an initial random mutation.
It happens without mutation as well. Over time the teeth of a predator may change shape to more efficiently hunt and kill their prey animals, because every animal is unique and has slight differences in their features over others, which are created due to its specific DNA. If a particular subset of these animals has a specific tooth shape that maximizes their effectiveness at their hunting, they are more likely to survive and reproduce, which will create more of the animal with this tooth shape. Over time, more and more of the animals will have this altered tooth shape, and some of those animals will eventually grow an even more optimal tooth shape. Over many, many generations the entire population will end up with this more ideal tooth shape, and thus evolution has occurred. And perhaps some of them who did not develop this tooth shape as this is all going on will be outcompeted and slowly migrate to another environment where they are not in competition with their more successful fellows. Perhaps in this environment, some other characteristic would be more beneficial. Over a long time, they may slowly develop some other idealized feature separately from their former cohabitators. This will eventually lead to the species splitting off into two distinct species, provided both branches survive long enough.
Also I'll ask again as willow has done: how do you explain the great diversity of dogs as a result of the introduced selective pressure of human breeding? What is that if not evolution in action, right before our eyes? You can breed two like breeds with one another and always get the same breed out of it. This means the dogs' genome has been changed. This is the very definition of what evolution is, change in genetics over generations as a result of selective pressure.
