3 ms·
>Evolution works through tiny incremental changes, but this flight sounds like an all-or-nothing scenario. I never confirmed one way or the other, but I'm fair
by setr 4y ago
>Evolution works through tiny incremental changes, but this flight sounds like an all-or-nothing scenario.
I never confirmed one way or the other, but I'm fairly positive evolution operates by large sudden changes followed by incremental improvements/optimizations -- it's difficult to explain many "weird" traits through incremental improvements, because most of them would get stuck in local maxima's before achieving any real benefit over the prior state.
Like you can't evolve a third arm by slowly iterating towards it, from a lump to a stump to a limb to a functional limb; it'd be entirely a loss until it becomes fully functional. You have to grow a shitty yet complete third arm first, but not so shitty that it doesn't offer benefit, and then iteratively improve it into a pretty nice arm
- 7952 4y agoI think that some traits have an unreasonably large effect on the species. And we attach greater significance to them after the fact which makes it seem like a big jump. For example some fish evolved to have stubby lobed fins. That gave them some local advantage. It is just coincidental that the same change lead to arms, legs and wings. And these kind of big visible features need more than a few changes in DNA to happen. An arm needs to attach to something, have muscles and arteries and nerves. That can only evolve iteratively from something else. There is a reason that elephant trunks are also a nose.
- robga 4y ago> I never confirmed one way or the other, but I'm fairly positive evolution operates by large sudden changes followed by incremental improvements/optimizations This is basically the theory of punctuated equilibrium as proposed by Stephen Jay Gould to the commonly held thought at the time of gradualism.