What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution?

[admin]

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection isn't an idea with holes. It's one of the most solid theories in science. But what exactly is it?

What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution? : Read more

 

[write4u]

As a follow up this may be of interest. It explains the mathematical mechanism of evolution.

Environment: “If certain conditions are present”

I programmed some creatures. They Evolved.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3tRFayqVtk

This is a report of a software project that created the conditions for evolution in an attempt to learn something about how evolution works in nature.

This is for the programmer looking for ideas for interdisciplinary programming projects, or for anyone interested in how evolution and natural selection work.

Before commenting on the religious/theological implications of this simulation, please note that this video in no way purports to explain all the mysteries of life and the universe.

 

[Cesium]

As a follow up this may be of interest. It explains the mathematical mechanism of evolution.

Environment: “If certain conditions are present”

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3tRFayqVtk

The principles of evolution can be clearly observed even over relatively short timespans. Everything from dog breeding and strawberry cultivation to NFL linemen are all examples of the principles of evolution, where conscious human selection augments natural selection and accelerates the impacts of evolution over relatively short timeframes.
The trouble I think people often have, comes with extrapolating the effects over relatively long periods of time. Some people simply don't believe the Earth has been around long enough for large-scale evolution. Or perhaps some can't wrap their brain around evolution on a scale of billions of years (if you reduce evolution to a statement such as "humans evolved from single-celled organisms" or "humans evolved from apes" it is easier for some to reject out of hand, especially when using the relatively short human lifespan as a point of reference). Or the idea that human beings have evolved from single-cellular organisms is upsetting, because people feel like that somehow makes human beings less special (which I have never really understood. If anything the process of evolution over billions of relative years makes humans more special, not less).
It is important to understand how things are connected.
For example, you can't accept on the one hand that DNA is a valid form of forensic evidence, and on the other hand reject the theory of evolution. One thing follows from the other. Either our cells are constructed beginning at conception using instructions from our DNA (in which case evolution is a valid theory) or they aren't. I find that people are often willing to accept the validity of DNA science without question, because it serves an important function, and they don't see it as something that challenges their assumptions. The same people often reject the theory evolution out of hand, because they see it as something that directly contradicts their fundamental assumptions.
In any case, the theory of Evolution wouldn't "explain all the mysteries of life and the Universe". Evolution is a logical extension of physics, but it does not purport to be a "theory of everything" (which is not a matter of theology or religion anyhow. A theory of everything can be related to theology without being theological in nature. In other words, a scientific theory of everything may find itself compatible with a theological framework. This is not something to be afraid of). Evolution is more of a scientific framework for understanding life in the context of Earth. It is true that in order to comprehensively evaluate the nature of life on Earth, one would have to comprehensively evaluate the entire Universe.
The Universe proceeds from an infinite precession of physics (a point being an imaginary object, and a "point of infinite density" being a misnomer. The Singularity is a unified phenomenon; the physics of the present, proceeding ad infinitum relative to an infinite precession of physics).
The entire infinite precession from which the Universe proceeds is directly relevant to the formation of our Solar System. Our Solar System is the effect of infinite cause. Therefore even if human life as we know it originated on Earth, human life as we know it can be accurately described as the effect of infinite cause that we call the present, without contradicting Darwin's theory of evolution.

 

[Cesium]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4HFFr0-ybg0


We do not evolve to perceive Truth. Fitness beats Truth.
The Singularity is the fundamental unifying force. This understanding is what renders quantum mechanics comprehensible in the context of relativity, and explains dark matter and dark energy. What is "the speed of light in a vacuum?" It is the speed of light relative to the Singularity. In objective reality, nothing is time dependant, it only appears to be because the speed of light relative to the Singularity is objectively unquantifiable, as all relative units of space and time are infinitely divisible. So we make *subjective* measurements of reality in terms of fitness (significant digits) using imaginary objects we call units for reference.
Einstein's most fundamental Universal constant, the speed of light in a vacuum, should be described as 299,792,458 x/∞ meters per 1 x/∞ second, where every decimal place from .0 to .∞ is relevant in cosmic terms. Because we do not and can not know all relevant digits, any theoretical framework of physics must contain a degree of uncertainty, a margin of error, relative to scale.
The more precise and efficient our systems for measuring, processing, compressing, storing, and transmitting information become, the closer we get to understanding objective reality in relative terms. However, our understanding is only improved relative to prior experience, and remains infinitely short of objective understanding regardless of what we do.
There is only one Truth: the Universe is infinite.

 

[write4u]

Normally, evolution occurs very gradually from minor genetic changes that offer a small but beneficial survival advantage, increasing the chances of that individual to mate and contribute his or her genes to the gene pool.

Large genetic mutations usually result in loss of beneficial attributes and with some rare exceptions are "selected" for extinction.

One such exception is the "silvery salamander" where the female has a complete double chromosomal helix and though she mates to stimulate mitosis, she rejects the addition of male sperm to her DNA, The result is that all her offspring are female and clones of the mother.

Silvery salamander

Behaviour[edit]

Lacking its own males, the LJJ biotype breeds with male blue-spotted or Jefferson salamanders from March to April. The males' spermatophores only stimulate egg development; their genetic material does not contribute to the offspring's DNA.

This mode of reproduction (a form of natural cloning) is called gynogenesis. The females lay cylindrical egg masses and attach them to underwater twigs. This salamander is not often observed and its diet and lifestyle are unknown.

Habitat and range[edit]

These salamanders live almost anywhere between south-central Michigan to adjacent Indiana and Ohio to western Massachusetts south to northern New Jersey. They are commonly found in or near shallow rivers and ponds in deciduous forest.

There is an extremely limited population of the salamanders in Vermilion County, Illinois with only one remaining natural population known. They are considered endangered within the state. Theory states that the population may have dropped due to the vernal pool in which they live not retaining water for a long enough period for their tadpoles to reach metamorphosis.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvery_salamander

Obviously, lacking contribution from the male results in an evolutionary dead and eventually that species will just fade into the mists of history.

But occasionally a large mutation offers a whole new advantageous ability and may result in a new species that forms a new branch on the genetic tree. (see following post)

 

[write4u]

Cesium said: The trouble I think people often have, comes with extrapolating the effects over relatively long periods of time. Some people simply don't believe the Earth has been around long enough for large-scale evolution.

Or perhaps some can't wrap their brain around evolution on a scale of billions of years (if you reduce evolution to a statement such as "humans evolved from single-celled organisms" or "humans evolved from apes" it is easier for some to reject out of hand, especially when using the relatively short human lifespan as a point of reference).

I believe this remarkable genetic discovery may explain the relatively fast evolutionary path of "homo sapiens" as compared to other "great apes".

Human Chromosome 2 is a fusion of two ancestral chromosomes
Introduction

All great apes apart from man have 24 pairs of chromosomes. There is therefore a hypothesis that the common ancestor of all great apes had 24 pairs of chromosomes and that the fusion of two of the ancestor's chromosomes created chromosome 2 in humans. The evidence for this hypothesis is very strong.

http://www.evolutionpages.com/images/hum_ape_chrom_2.gif

Let us re-iterate what we find on human chromosome 2. Its centromere is at the same place as the chimpanzee chromosome 2p as determined by sequence similarity. Even more telling is the fact that on the 2q arm of the human chromosome 2 is the unmistakable remains of the original chromosome centromere of the common ancestor of human and chimp 2q chromosome, at the same position as the chimp 2q centromere (this structure in humans no longer acts as a centromere for chromosome 2.

Conclusion

The evidence that human chromosome 2 is a fusion of two of the common ancestor's chromosomes is overwhelming.

Chromosome fusion
Demonstration that human chromosome 2 is the fusion of two ancestral chromosomes
www.evolutionpages.com

This genetic marker assigns 23 pairs of chromosomes only to humans and IMO is the genetic blueprint of the first "human".

I believe this fusion from 2 smaller chromosomes into 1 large chromosome may have altered the genetic braingrowth instruction resulting in a much bigger more complex brain, allowing for the tree dwellers to leave the forests and migrate from the jungle toward the coast which allowed for a travel-route north along both east and west coasts, with the ocean as a reliable and safe foodsource. Very old cave dwellers existed at the southern tip of Africa .

Blombos Cave

The most informative archaeological material from Blombos Cave includes engraved ochre,[9][10] engraved bone[11] ochre processing kits,[3] marine shell beads,[12][13][14] refined bone and stone tools[15][16][17][18][19] and a broad range of terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including shellfish, birds, tortoise and ostrich egg shell, and mammals of various sizes.[20][21][22]

These findings, together with subsequent re-analysis and excavation of other Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, have resulted in a paradigm shift with regard to the understanding of the timing and location of the development of modern human behaviour.

On 29 May 2015 Heritage Western Cape formally protected the site as a provincial heritage site.[23]

Cross-hatching done in ochre on a stone fragment found at Blombos Cave is believed to be the earliest known drawing done by a human in the world.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave

And if interested, there is also Pinnacle Point cave that has yielded very old tools and signs of cultural activities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_Point

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I believe that an argument can be made on the chromosomal evidence in the other hominid branches of great apes that have evolved at a much slower "normal" rate than humans. The evolutionary difference must have resulted from the chromosome fusion.

Just one example of a very rare beneficial mutation.
Humans won the intelligence jackpot in the evolutionary lottery.