Evolution - How?

I could get into a lot about evolution right now, about the cambrian explosion, trilobites, arthropods, the vertebrate eye, etc. But, what intrigues me the most about evolution is not why evolution in the animal kingdom exists, yet how it exists.

In the evolutionary arms race, which has been waged within the vertebrate universe as well as mammal universe for millions of years, I find it intriguing how animals can evolve.


Animal A is slow, fat and can't see far.

Animal B is fast, rigid and has thousands of lenses within its eye.

Animal A is attacked by animal B and dies. This happens for 1,000 years. Yet suddenly, animal A appears to have evolved a way to secrete poison when it feels it in danger.

Animal B tries to attack animal A and animal A spews poison on it and animal B dies.

Animal A has devoloped a defense.


Yet, HOW? I've always wondered how animals adapt. Do they somehow choose to adapt these features, in a way that is above the sub-consious level? Or, when the animal is being killed, do the cells within the animal somehow... remember this attack and somehow learn for the next time? Yet this cannot be possible. We talk about religion vs. evolution all day, and how one exists, the other doesn't exist, or both exist in coelesence. Yet, maybe if we knew more about HOW animals adapt, then maybe it will answer more questions about ourselves.

it comes down to natural selection, which is quite literally, naturally selecting what stays alive and what dies.

"it comes down to natural selection, which is quite literally, naturally selecting what stays alive and what dies."

I understand this... yet... HOW do the animals evolve? What causes them to adapt and change?

Let's say for sake of argument I was alone in the world with millions of animals and I had guns. MANY GUNS.

So I'm winning for like 10 years, shooting animals, eating, winning.

Suddenly, a species has evolved with armour plated skin, so now I'm screwed.


How does this evolution of adaptation occur? Do the animals themselves choose to adapt, or ... do the cells and DNA somehow understand what is occurring in the world around them?

We are allow to talk about religion?

Personally I don't believe in a evolution, it's a theory with a lot of holes.

It's not a concious mutation. It's one that just happens. There are tons of mutations that occur that don't lead to a good trait, but they die out. So the only ones with traits that help them live longer will reproduce at a high rate, leading them to become the only type of that species.

"We are allow to talk about religion?"

"We are allow to talk about religion?"

Genetic mutations are what actually cause animals to evolve.

DUH, they just decide to do it over a millions of years collectively.

Maybe if all the humans in the world try hard enough we could have wings in 10 million years.

"It's not a concious mutation. It's one that just happens. There are tons of mutations that occur that don't lead to a good trait, but they die out. So the only ones with traits that help them live longer will reproduce at a high rate, leading them to become the only type of that species."

You have a good point, I always wondered about that.

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"We are allow to talk about religion?"

It's the off-topic forum, we should be allowed to talk about anything."

But it is a random mutation. It's just that you don't hear about the random mutations that die out. So the ones you hear about end up being the 'perfect' ones, because only the 'perfect' ones survive natural selection.

I think the only evolution man can see is with in his own existence oh how slow it is. Sounds like use need to read The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.

The strongest, fastest, most resilient etc. survive through natural selection. They produce offspring with these traits. The offspring survive and continue to breed and the process continues for many years until you end up with an animal with different, more advanced traits.

"Azteris said:

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"We are allow to talk about religion?"

It's the off-topic forum, we should be allowed to talk about anything."

Yeah some people get angry for some reason."

"Personally I don't believe in a evolution, it's a theory with a lot of holes."

species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.

"species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.
"

mutations that stay in the organisms genes through natural selection

I watched a movie on like monkeys or something evolving a long time ago, it was actually really interesting.

"I understand this... yet... HOW do the animals evolve? What causes them to adapt and change?

Let's say for sake of argument I was alone in the world with millions of animals and I had guns. MANY GUNS.

So I'm winning for like 10 years, shooting animals, eating, winning.

Suddenly, a species has evolved with armour plated skin, so now I'm screwed.


How does this evolution of adaptation occur? Do the animals themselves choose to adapt, or ... do the cells and DNA somehow understand what is occurring in the world around them?"

Animals evole by natural selection. This includes mutation and sexual attraction. If a organism is a "stronger" mate it is more likely to pass along it's "superior" genes. Also sometimes mutations happen. Most of the time they are harmfull or neutral changes. Sometimes a mutant has a positive change and it becomes the "stronger" mate and gets to pass along it's genes more than the previous version.

"DUH, they just decide to do it over a millions of years collectively.

Maybe if all the humans in the world try hard enough we could have wings in 10 million years."

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.
"

Evolution and God really don't compliment each other."

"Azteris said:

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.
"

Evolution and God really don't compliment each other."

and how is that?
how i believe says god could easily have setup a complicated system of nature and evolution that he does not have to have a hand in...making it so he can concentrate on the faith and love of all beings in the universe...
"

Here is a better example of what I'm trying to ask....

When we look at mammals, who live in the light, above water, there is no need for us to produce any light. We simply have eyes to see the light the sun produces.

In the depths of the ocean, miles below the surface of the water, there lives a pitch dark world with deep sea fish teaming at the bottom. These fish produce bio-luminescence. Meaning they create their own light through photophores. "Wiki: Most marine light-emission belongs in the blue and greenlight spectrum, the wavelengths that can transmit through the seawater most easily. However, certain loose-jawed fish emit red and infrared light and the genus Tomopteris emits yellow bioluminescence."

Now obviously, these fish need to see in order to survive; so they create their own light. We (surface dwelling species) do not produce our own light, because we have the sun. What caused these animals to produce their own light? We know that, logically, they need light. Yet HOW did they do this? I doubt it's a coincidence that their mutations, unlike surface dwelling species just "happened" to mutate with the ability to produce light. Something FIGURED this out. I can't see how millions of years of swimming around in the dark would spontaneously SPARK the capability to produce your own light source simply because you live in the dark.

Evolution to me seems so perfect. Everything seems so.... well planned out. Now I don't necessarily believe in God . This is NOT a religious discussion. I'm speaking purely scientifically.

When we watch or read about evolution on TV or in books, scientists always speak of Evolution as a person, "Evolution chose to do this, or that." Or, the common argument is that mutations occur, the ones which are better suited and equipped win this proverbial "arms-race". Yet, I can't see how mutations simply occur randomly to fit into these surroundings. It seems as though something is "helping" these evolutionary steps within the animal kingdom.

Does ANYONE understand what I'm talking about?

Everything needs to adapt to survive. Maybe dogs used to live in the water, but were driven out by dolphins. These dogs had to adapt to survive on land, and also to plan revenge on these "dolphins". After an attack on the dolphins, the dogs had to retreat, since they were low in numbers. So they decided to come under man's wing and pick on a lower species, cats. It all comes full circle.

Also I suggest watching the movie "Evolution" with that one guy from the X-Files.

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"Azteris said:

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.
"

Evolution and God really don't compliment each other."

and how is that?
how i believe says god could easily have setup a complicated system of nature and evolution that he does not have to have a hand in...making it so he can concentrate on the faith and love of all beings in the universe...
"

By that theory God compliments everything because you can just say "GOD MADE EVERYTHING SO HE COMPLIMENTS EVERYTHING"."

"Here is a better example of what I'm trying to ask....

When we look at mammals, who live in the light, above water, there is no need for us to produce any light. We simply have eyes to see the light the sun produces.

In the depths of the ocean, miles below the surface of the water, there lives a pitch dark world with deep sea fish teaming at the bottom. These fish produce bio-luminescence. Meaning they create their own light through photophores. "Wiki: Most marine light-emission belongs in the blue and greenlight spectrum, the wavelengths that can transmit through the seawater most easily. However, certain loose-jawed fish emit red and infrared light and the genus Tomopteris emits yellow bioluminescence."

Now obviously, these fish need to see in order to survive; so they create their own light. We (surface dwelling species) do not produce our own light, because we have the sun. What caused these animals to produce their own light? We know that, logically, they need light. Yet HOW did they do this? I doubt it's a coincidence that their mutations, unlike surface dwelling species just "happened" to mutate with the ability to produce light. Something FIGURED this out. I can't see how millions of years of swimming around in the dark would spontaneously SPARK the capability to produce your own light source simply because you live in the dark.

Evolution to me seems so perfect. Everything seems so.... well planned out. Now I don't necessarily believe in God . This is NOT a religious discussion. I'm speaking purely scientifically.

When we watch or read about evolution on TV or in books, scientists always speak of Evolution as a person, "Evolution chose to do this, or that." Or, the common argument is that mutations occur, the ones which are better suited and equipped win this proverbial "arms-race". Yet, I can't see how mutations simply occur randomly to fit into these surroundings. It seems as though something is "helping" these evolutionary steps within the animal kingdom.

Does ANYONE understand what I'm talking about?"

Alright, let me give you some examples.

Suppose there were a times where all rabbit were brown, and they were easy prey for predators in snowy environments. Most mutations are useless things such as birth defects that put the organism at a disadvantage. BUT over extremely long times, you get lucky, and one of the rabbits are born with a white coat. This rabbit will survive because of the added camouflage, and create offspring with this trait. This trait will help those offspring survive, and spread there gene even more, thus natural selection.

Another example, let's suppose an extremely deadly and contagious virus comes onto the earth, and it's fatal to 95 percent of human. 5 percent are naturally immune to the virus. Within a few hundred years almost every human alive will be immune. How? Because those immune are the ones that survive, and they pass on their immunity to their offspring, and the process goes on. Naturally bettering the species.

A number of factors actually.  Environmental changes, eating habit changes, ect...

"Azteris said:

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"Azteris said:

"WilliamRLBaker said:

"species A is a certain way
species B hunts species A

certain genetic traits either by being faster, tasting different...ect in certain members of species A allow it to survive its offspring being a mix of parents that because they survived because of this trait this trait being stronger and more prevailent.

After time species A is made up all most totally of the decendents of the original parents with the mutation or traits.

Species B has certain memebers with traits that can eat species A's new traits survive....you get the idea

As for religion i believe in both evolution and god, they prove each other and compliment each other more so then not.
"

Evolution and God really don't compliment each other."

and how is that?
how i believe says god could easily have setup a complicated system of nature and evolution that he does not have to have a hand in...making it so he can concentrate on the faith and love of all beings in the universe...
"

By that theory God compliments everything because you can just say "GOD MADE EVERYTHING SO HE COMPLIMENTS EVERYTHING"."

um yeah? im a christian so i believe god created every thing, but what im sayng is that explained in the right way god compliments the theory of evolution to christians that believe in evolution but do not understand the relationships between the 2. to me god created every thing, but i all so believe god was the one that put evolution there, that we were ape like creatures that evolved according to gods plan. they compliment each other cause both have holes the bible, belief in god they all have unanswered questions, evolution how did it start why do things evolve in such radical ways with out a seeming cause but combine the 2 and it fills in alot of the unanswered questions atleast for me.
"

lol at the person that said they believe in Evolution & God. Wow!

"lol at the person that said they believe in Evolution & God. Wow!"

As for how it works I believe animals just sometimes have random mutations which do happen, and if they survive they go on to make more babies which are more likely to have the same mutation and so on.

It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones.

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

"dreDREb13 said:

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

Don't be stealin ma thunder.
:P"

God is the answer

it's a gradual process. Each of us is more evolved than our parents. Significant mutations, eg- bioluminescence, change in skeletal structure, etc, are random and usually disadvantageous. But some are advantageous, and become part of the standard gene pool
ItalyCanadian9 said:

"lol at the person that said they believe in Evolution & God. Wow!"

"God is the answer"

"DualReaver said:

"dreDREb13 said:

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

Don't be stealin ma thunder.
:P"

I can't steal thunder from a Radiohead fan.  =D"

"God is the answer"

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

blind statement is blind."

"God is the answer"

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

Why the fuck are you trying so hard to derail this thread?
He asked how evolution is believed to work, we answered.
dreDREb13 said:

"DualReaver said:

"dreDREb13 said:

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

Don't be stealin ma thunder.
:P"

I can't steal thunder from a Radiohead fan.  =D"

ily2"

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

I might be agnostic, but I still love you, Icy.

DualReaver said:

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

Why the fuck are you trying so hard to derail this thread?
He asked how evolution is believed to work, we answered.
dreDREb13 said:

"DualReaver said:

"dreDREb13 said:

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

Don't be stealin ma thunder.
:P"

I can't steal thunder from a Radiohead fan.  =D"

ily2"

*hug*

Forever and ever."

"dreDREb13 said:

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

I might be agnostic, but I still love you, Icy.

DualReaver said:

"ItalyCanadian9 said:

"God is the answer"

Why the fuck are you trying so hard to derail this thread?
He asked how evolution is believed to work, we answered.
dreDREb13 said:

"DualReaver said:

"dreDREb13 said:

"It's mutation.  Simple as that.  Evolution isn't about knowing what's happening to them and somehow evolving to fix that.  It's about one thing being the more survivable.  When one is born with a mutation that's positive to it, it'll survive, and make more of those mutated ones."

Don't be stealin ma thunder.
:P"

I can't steal thunder from a Radiohead fan.  =D"

ily2"

*hug*

Forever and ever."

You rock babe!"

"lol at the person that said they believe in Evolution & God. Wow!"