Things You Would Like To See An Evolutionist Explain

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The Killer Clown has summed it up!

The evolutionary reasons why people seem so ill-disposed to believe in evolutionary theory.

(Ok, joking, I've actually read about that topic a little already)

Phonetically it's OK. It's just misspelled. It should be "weak end" and the end referred to is in the skull.

*looks at title suspitiously*
(oh here are questions for you)

-Why?
What's the motive for this?

Just curious, someone explain the spleen. Why is it still there.

I wanna know if anyone else knows this, because, it's an interesting evolution side note.

I'd like to see a working theory as to how a scale is alleged to have evolved into a feather.

Or what evolutionary advantage there was for dinosaurs (solid boned) to have become hollow boned as they were turning into birds.

The idea of evolution, as I understand it, is that each stage presents some advantage over the previous stage. I don't see that a hollow boned dinosaur would have had that much of an advantage, and I can't imagine that scales would have been much use at some point midway between scale and feather.

Feather's by the way are a triumph of engineering. Have you ever had a good look at them under a microscope? They're amazing! Sliding joints intricately intertwined, kept oiled by the bird's grooming (there is a sebacious gland on their backs, so when you see a bird preen they are actually oiling their feathers.) There are also three different kinds of feathers involved in flight...

I think they're amazing.

I'd like to see any evidence to show how a dinosaur turned into a bird, without dying out along the way.

See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 141557.htm

Or the veriform appendix.

Answer. Sometime in the past a spleen or appendix was necessary to the functioning and survival of an ancestor. Now it is just carried from one generation to the next. As long as it does not act against reproductive fitness of individuals of our species, it will not "disappear" on its own. If such things do lessen the reproductive fitness of our species it will be selected against.

Evolution is not a process of perfecting. It is a way of discarding mismatches between biological characteristics and the environment that interfere with reproductive fitness. All nature "cares" about it how well individuals make copies of the genes they received from their parents.

ruveyn

ruveyn

Can't give an example of dinosaurs turning into birds, but I can give you an example of whales turned into land-animals, should be a good substitute: Ambulocetus Natans, the walking whale that swims. The idea of an animal like this surviving such a transition was actually mocked until fossils of these creatures were found in the Indus river between India and Pakistan.

The dinosaurs evolution into birds has been somewhat glamorized by hollywood/discovery channel. The T-rex did not evolve into today's ostrich, more than likely anyways.

We generally believe that about 65 million years ago a meteor hit the Yukon peninsula nearly wiping out the dinosaur population, there is plenty of evidence to support it, it's at least moved beyond theory and is now considered scientific theory, and very arguably scientific fact(of course there is always the theory that smoking killed the dinosaur, but i think gary larsen has lost some ground with that argument in the last decade). The key word here is that it 'nearly' wiped off the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs consisted of wide variety of class/order. And the disaster wiped out the larger of them, obviously killing off vegetation and larger animals first. But smaller dinosaurs (and animals in general) are better equipped to survive, being able to survive off dead fauna, the quicker to grow back smaller plants/trees, insects etc etc.

We also know of dozens of dinosaurs that predate the meteor who were feathered. Feathers were a evolutionary trait that came before the 'extinction' of dinosaurs, and it was those smaller dinosaurs more capable of winged flight that were better equipped to survive. Those are the ones that evolved into today's modern bird.

To kind of compare here, when talking genetic ancestors, we compare humans to apes, which we are generally believed to be about 4-5 million years separated. When talking birds to dinosaurs, you're talking 65 million years separated.

As well, dinosaurs are not generally believed to have had scales, though we really cant tell exactly what their skin was like, we probably would have found evidence of scales in certain fossilization situations similar to how we've come across dinosaurs that were fossilized in what were soft muddy areas that preserved the indentations of the feathers. The whole 'lizard with scales' things is again a more hollywoodized visualization thing, and really 100+ years outdated.

Actually it's the other way round. Whales and other cetaceans are mammals that are descended from mammals that lived on land. They are now adapted to living their lives in water.

The appendix has been discovered to carry a reserve supply of micro-organisms necessary for digestion.

I've heard that about the appendix recently too, there is a function to it.

But Ruveyn does bring up a good point about vestigial traits. We've got lots of them as humans, some not so clear as to why, others like our tailbone, wisdom teeth, and other bone structures we know why. Obviously we once had a tail but it became useless as we adapted to the changing climates and plains we had to adapt to, even a burden at that point so it slowly became a more desired trait to reproduce with those with shorter and shorter tails. We still have the useless tailbone and only in rare genetic cases are people born with it long enough to actually give them a vestigial tail, but it's there (and really onlyt here to hurt like hell if it's broken =P).
We've not evolved out of the growth of more teeth that were once needed for our larger protruding jawbones and diet of rougher raw meets and plants, we used to have even more, but have now evolved down to just that one extra set that grows in (and medical attention to those in need of them removing probably means we wont devolve any more from that). We still have a curved bone/spine structure that is far more comfortable in a bent position, the standing position is still an naturally unnatural one =P.

There are also vestigial traits we still have like goose bumps, people who still get those when afraid or cold are just old traits from when we had full bodies of hair and the cold wind would cause the hair to raise on end trapping warm air and keeping the body warm, or as a defense to fear to make the body seem larger.


They are all just examples of that illustrate both ends of evolution, animals evolve into newer traits and devolve just as much out of other ones.

Ahh, sorry... got that one backwards!

Feathers are thought to have originated for decoration or insulation, so the first feathers needn't be so precise and aerodynamic as modern bird feathers. The transitional species between dinosaurs and modern birds likely jumped or glided, and being lighter permitted them to move faster. Speed was an advantage.


A hollow bone makes the animal lighter. A lighter animal can run faster- all the better for chasing prey or fleeing from predators. Feathers can keep an animal warm even if they aren't great for flying, or they could be decorative to attract a mate. Later they could allow air resistance that gives the animal slightly longer jumps, and then glides, and eventually flying.


Try checking Google, you'll find innumerable studies if you spend five minutes on it.

Honestly, every challenge I see raised against evolution is mostly ignorance from people who are too lazy to check a simple Google search to see if their objection has already been answered.

U-Con peninsula? topic

I think the correct name is Yucatan Peninsula, down Mexico way. Not Yukon. This is a territory in Northern Canada, and it borders Alaska. Apparently, though, dinosaurs did roam The Yukon millions of years ago, in the Dino Age, when the world was much warmer.

Those Yanks. Even Yukoners do not see snow 12 months a year!

At any rate, I would like Evolution to explain the above!