4 ms·
> There's no easy way out anyway. Evolution always finds new nooks and crannies of state space to explore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndbw7SQMCcQ https:/
by echelon 10mo ago
> There's no easy way out anyway.
Evolution always finds new nooks and crannies of state space to explore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndbw7SQMCcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndbw7SQMCcQ
- odyssey7 10mo agoYes, but maybe not from one specific lineage. E.g., extinction really is the end of the line for some species.
- maxbond 10mo agoNot always, species go extinct all the time. Evolution can get stuck in local optima. Consider the whiptail lizard, which has lost the ability to reproduce sexually. Will they be able to adapt to future changes of the environment? Maybe, but the chips are stacked against them.
- yetihehe 10mo agoNo one said that those nooks are not deadly. But evolution will explore them just in case.
- computerex 10mo agoEvolution doesn’t explore anything, mutations are random, selection pressure causes beneficial traits to become more common overtime.
- yetihehe 10mo agoYes, but those mutations are part of why evolution works. Through random mutations, every possible way of doing something is explored. If something is beneficial, organisms thrive. If it's not beneficial, organisms die. The same is for whole species. If a species was using some niche to their advantage and the niche disappeared, the species will die. But that niche (nook) was explored.
- esafak 10mo agoThat's what exploration looks like; mutation plus selection. I think you know this but consider exploration willful, perhaps?
- computerex 10mo agoYes, that's it. I could have worded it better. My point was that it's random, evolution isn't a directed willful phenomenon but a consequence of the physical world/physics.
- RaftPeople 10mo ago> mutations are random Kind of. Mutation rate of our dna is "managed" by the dna/chromosomes/genes to reduce the rate in critical areas.
- kruuuder 10mo agoWow what an interesting animal, haven't heard about it before. > the chips are stacked against them. Wikipedia says: "This reproductive method enables the asexual desert grassland whiptail lizard to have a genetic diversity previously thought to have been unique to sexually reproductive species." Doesn't look to bad?
- maxbond 10mo agoSorry for the late response. I wanted to find time to do more research about this before responding but I'm gunnuh accept that it's not happening on a useful timeframe. I'm not sure which Wikipedia article that is or if there has been revision between when you checked, I didn't find that in the Wikipedia articles for Telidae or Parthenogenesis. The Parthenogenesis article notes that it's controversial whether this is a threat to their ability to adapt. So I may have been wrong with that example and I thank you for correcting me. I stand by the statement that evolution can get stuck in local minima but I may have been wrong about the Telidae.
- kruuuder 10mo agoI found it in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_grassland_whiptail_lizard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_grassland_whiptail_liza...