- Sep 12, 2008
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Aligators don't change because the pressure is on them not to change. You make a change, you don't survive.
Humans are in all kinds of weird environments. And we make our own. Human populations are spread all over the place. there are huge pressures that make for huge differentiations.
Alligators can't do much about the fact that they need hot temperatures and fresh water.
Humans are everywhere, and we are infinitely adaptable. But our environments all put different pressures on us which can cause large cosmetic changes in very few generations.
But my understanding is that random mutation don't care if you need to change or not, that's what they're called "Random"
That is true. But if the mutations are a bad thing, then the critter is selected out of the gene pool. this happens in most cases. In the very rare case where the mutation is beneficial, then that mutation takes takes the pool. In the case of alligators, any changes are deleterious. They are selected out.
for some reason Pink skin does real well in northern climes. It is a positive mutation, but it is a recessive gene. The pressures for it to take over a certain geographic region like it did means there is a huge advantage to pink skin in that particular region. those that lack this feature seem to have been selected out very harshly.