(February 13, 2020 at 1:40 pm)Yukon_Jack Wrote: Well what I’m saying is that mutations ARE like magic. As Luck and magic would have it , look what they accomplished, among everything from owls, eyes. to blood clotting to the insect doppelgänger of a leaf and many other examples of traits that seem too good to be true.
And. What did your parents say about things that are usually too good to be true?
If I was stuck in the middle of the desert dying of thirst what would the chances be that a case of spring water would be behind the next rock ?
OK, as an example: Giraffes. [And by proxy it's food source also]
A very long time ago, Giraffes had short/"regular size" necks. Via random mutation, the food source of the giraffes grew taller, so avoid being eaten. This then increases the amount of time the organism is alive so it can reproduce more, passing on it's genetic material that now says "grew this tall to avoid predators".
In comparison, some of the proto-giraffes could no longer reach the food, so they died. 1 or more would have a complete random mutation that provides them with a slightly longer neck. [Bearing in mind that mutation as a whole is not the answer itself: some would be born with short necks, some with shorter legs, some with longer legs etc]. This of course gave them the chance to eat, live longer an reproduce - passing on this new mutation.
As you can gather, this happened slowly over millions of years, and here we are today. Giraffes that are really tall [leg wise] AND that have long necks, so they can still eat their food. The plant itself went from a small-ish plant, to a tree to compete with it's "predator" but only really by chance - because all the previous version of it would have died off, as it would be easier to eat.
That's roughly the premise here - mutation occours, but it may or may not be beneficial ot the species itself. Those with bad mutations or mutations that result in unhelpful things die off, thus not passing on that treat genetically, but those that live longer due to positive changes CAN pass on that genetic mutation. And the cycle goes on and on, and constantly does to this day - it's only the changes are so minute and take so long, it's hard to "see".
On the plus side, you CAN see evolution in action with various insects, as they reproduce faster - fruit flies I believe are the prime candidate during testing.
"Be Excellent To Each Other"