About evolution

[Duty]

Donald Trunk and Elon Tusk...oh wait, I think I'm confused...

[arewethereyet]

Wait - What?

Elephants stopped growing tusks because of poaching?

Put down the crack pipe.

I think whats hes saying is that the elephants with big trunks were shot leaving only small trunked elephants. Hunting became an evolutionary pressure to shrink the size  of tusks. Could happen but I've not seen the research.

It could also mean that if an elephant has a big trunk people shoot it which could affect the results I suppose.

Read it again - said grow without tusks not smaller tusks.  ie - stopped growing tusks at all.

[Mr Greene]

I think whats hes saying is that the elephants with big trunks were shot leaving only small trunked elephants. Hunting became an evolutionary pressure to shrink the size  of tusks. Could happen but I've not seen the research.

It could also mean that if an elephant has a big trunk people shoot it which could affect the results I suppose.

Read it again - said grow without tusks not smaller tusks.  ie - stopped growing tusks at all.

He also said something about horns, not convinced of his qualifications.

[The Grand Nudger]

I am not a denier of it. But some of the explanation doesnt make much sense to me. What i do agree with is animals evolve. There has been proof that elephants grow without tusks because in Africa they take their horns and so now some dont grow tusks at all.

Or the fact that a lion, panther or house cat have similar traits. So evolution does make sense here.

Pretty cool - I hadn't heard about the elephants.  

But here is where i dont agree. I dont think humans is the way it is just because apes are smart. That i think is stupid. Because think about it? Squirrels are smart, they have thumbs and feets. Why cant they evolve into a humanoid things? Or racoons? Why only us?

Example. Why cant there be a life form that looks like this? Explain that?

You're not disagreeing with evolutionary biology, here.  A complete description of humanity contains more than just cleverness - which is a broadly shared trait, not just between us and other primates..but many animals, as you note.  Some plants are clever as well.  There's nothing preventing some humanoid race of -insert x here- from evolving - broadly defined and in a vacuum.  

To put this into context of earth, and life's vast interelationship - it's clear that selective pressure advantaged an animal like us - but we weren't always as we are.  Rodents like squirrels -did- evolve into humanoids.  Us. 

I'm not confident that another species following a similar evolutionary trajectory would have much luck...because even though there's no reason it couldn't happen again..in a vacuum.. on earth, there are billions.  Us.  

We've been training dogs to hunt racoons for some time now.

Another theory is people say that survival instinct was also reason to why humans became the way it is. Which i also dont believe in. Lots of species have been on their way of extinction. I have yet not seen them go HAAAH TRANSFORM. So i dont buy it.

Yep, earth is a meat grinder.  We think of other planets as hostile because of some environmental factor like atmosphere or temperature - but here on earth...the air is fine and the water is cool.  OTOH, you won't be eaten alive anus first on mars.  

Most species that have ever graced this open grave we call home are under our feet.  Unclear on what you mean by survival instict - and just like before noting that it takes more than a broadly shared drive to live to describe human beings - I'd say that I don't even know how you could be disagreeing with evolutionary biology on this one.  

Now what i think is the real thing is Alien DNA. Some evolutionary biological thing that may be added by some alien biological thing. Basically i think humans are half ape and half alien in DNA. And thats why i think we are the way we are.

Alien dna wouldn't be a problem for evolutionary biology.  Presumably, that alien dna also underwent evolutionary processes.  

Also articles on trying this with animals? So if a animals turns out to be sapient. Then we know the real deal. But what do you think?

The real deal about what?  We know that at least one animal is sapient.  Us.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are more.  What do you think this would tell us about whatever real deal you're referring to?

[downbeatplumb]

I think whats hes saying is that the elephants with big trunks were shot leaving only small trunked elephants. Hunting became an evolutionary pressure to shrink the size  of tusks. Could happen but I've not seen the research.

It could also mean that if an elephant has a big trunk people shoot it which could affect the results I suppose.

Read it again - said grow without tusks not smaller tusks.  ie - stopped growing tusks at all.

Really! what a dick.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've heard about tuskless elephants for a few years. It's simply "fit to survive", meaning elephants without tusks are now the ones that reproduce. They were always there, old records mention them in Roman times. But now they're what's left. The tuskers no longer dominate the breeding.

[brewer]

I am not a denier of it. But some of the explanation doesnt make much sense to me. What i do agree with is animals evolve. There has been proof that elephants grow without tusks because in Africa they take their horns and so now some dont grow tusks at all.

Or the fact that a lion, panther or house cat have similar traits. So evolution does make sense here.

But here is where i dont agree. I dont think humans is the way it is just because apes are smart. That i think is stupid. Because think about it? Squirrels are smart, they have thumbs and feets. Why cant they evolve into a humanoid things? Or racoons? Why only us?

Example. Why cant there be a life form that looks like this? Explain that?


Another theory is people say that survival instinct was also reason to why humans became the way it is. Which i also dont believe in. Lots of species have been on their way of extinction. I have yet not seen them go HAAAH TRANSFORM. So i dont buy it.

Now what i think is the real thing is Alien DNA. Some evolutionary biological thing that may be added by some alien biological thing. Basically i think humans are half ape and half alien in DNA. And thats why i think we are the way we are.


Also articles on trying this with animals? So if a animals turns out to be sapient. Then we know the real deal. But what do you think?

[LastPoet]

Another theory is people say that survival instinct was also reason to why humans became the way it is. Which i also dont believe in. Lots of species have been on their way of extinction. I have yet not seen them go HAAAH TRANSFORM. So i dont buy it.

You don't understand evolution. It's not x-men or pokemon. Instead of pestering us adults that have the knowledge, try school, even highschool level biology will give you the insight you need.

[Rahn127]

Sanau, you don't understand why humans are intelligent.

Ok, how do we go about solving this problem ?
Here is something you don't understand and you have expressed this lack of understanding to your fellow human beings.
As social creatures, we want to help you understand. We want you to be the best you that you can be.

We might offer books for you to read to help you understand the evolution of the brain.
We might suggest that you take some online courses in biology to help further your understanding.

As a group, our level of information that we have obtained over the centuries allow us to stand on the shoulders of giants in any particular field of understanding, but this didn't happen overnight. It took millions of years for our brains to slowly evolve.

If you go back to our shrew like ancestors, they had a brain that was keen on survival. They had physical features that helped them to survive. Their paw like hands allowed them to grip things and their brains made cause and effect connections.

There are birds today that will drop hardened nut shells into city traffic in such a way that cars will drive over the nuts and break open the shells for them. Then they can fly down and get to the nuts inside the shell. That kind of mentality came from a more evolved brain. It's small things like this that may lead them into something very intelligent like us a hundred million years from now.

Biologically we have a lot of physical and mental traits going for us that allowed us to not only survive, but to thrive in a world with other animals that are physically more powerful than we are.

One human versus one other animal and most of the time, we'll lose that battle.
Human vs lion
Human vs wolf
Human vs shark

We survived because our ancestors formed social circles long before we had any kind of intelligence.
We helped protect one another from outside elements that wanted to harm us.

As we grew smarter, we also learned that we could hunt and gather as a group and this allowed us to be more successful in surviving. Larger groups meant that we could hold our own if we worked together.

Do squirrels hunt or gather in packs ? Do they have any survival needs that might require them to do something special in order to survive ?

They have it pretty good. They live in fairly protected cities and even in the wild, their natural predators are owls, hawks and eagles that attack from the air. Snakes also feed on squirrels and can travel right down into that hole that squirrels might hide in to avoid birds. Because of this squirrels create multiple nests for themselves in case they have to move.

As you can see, given millions of years of more evolving, squirrels will probably make that jump into what we consider intelligence.

Our biggest survival tool that we use is our brain. Other animals survive using their natural physical characteristics.

Sharks have survived for millions of years without much change.
We survive and are very adaptive to new situations and new environments.
Sharks have had the same environment for literally millions of years.

My final words are ...."Pick up a few books and start reading about the things you don't understand."

[ignoramus]

OP, which university are you at? Just curious?