Serious Evolution Question

[Wry Catcher]

There is nothing stopping you from drinking it, moron.

It's toxic to us Rderp, it would be as if Oxygen were poisonous to us.

If it were "toxic", would we be able to swim in it?

I don't know any land animals that drink salt water. In fact, even most creatures that live in fresh water can't drink it.

God you're dumb.

Gee Frank, maybe that explains you? Breathing pure Oxygen over a long period and/or under greater than one atmosphere of pressure be toxic, can cause CNS injury, brain damage or death. Have you been posting from an oxygen bar?

 

[Wiseacre]

" So my question is this: How do two species A mate to produce species B (who can no longer mate with species A), and where does species B then find another species B to mate with? Let me put forth an example of how currently defined evolution does not work: Humans have been engaged in an intensive experiment to create a new species of dog for over 3,000 years, resulting in the greatest size variation (100x) of any species that has ever existed on Earth. However, at the end of the day they are all still the same species and can (theoretically) still mate with each other and produce viable offspring. Why hasn't "evolution" created a new species of dog? "

Times change, climates change, geography changes, nothing stays the same. And so, some species are able to genetically mutate to survive in the changed environment and some don't. Predators like the saber toothed tiger died out or got much smaller. some species were able to survive while they adapted, others could not and went extinct. As far as dogs go, they all share enough of the same DNA to have offspring. And evolution would have created new dog species, but we humans kind of did it first.

 

[FA_Q2]

If we "evolved" from salt water why can't we drink it?

Because we have evolved too far. It has been many mutations since what are now humans could live in and drink salt water.

So as an evolutionary strategy, it's not very efficient, is it?

Whoever claimed evolution was efficient?

It is terribly inefficient. It is a brute force method that usally ends in extinction. Far from effecent.

Reality does not seem to care though.

 

[rdean]

" So my question is this: How do two species A mate to produce species B (who can no longer mate with species A), and where does species B then find another species B to mate with? Let me put forth an example of how currently defined evolution does not work: Humans have been engaged in an intensive experiment to create a new species of dog for over 3,000 years, resulting in the greatest size variation (100x) of any species that has ever existed on Earth. However, at the end of the day they are all still the same species and can (theoretically) still mate with each other and produce viable offspring. Why hasn't "evolution" created a new species of dog? "

Times change, climates change, geography changes, nothing stays the same. And so, some species are able to genetically mutate to survive in the changed environment and some don't. Predators like the saber toothed tiger died out or got much smaller. some species were able to survive while they adapted, others could not and went extinct. As far as dogs go, they all share enough of the same DNA to have offspring. And evolution would have created new dog species, but we humans kind of did it first.

One of the real problems in determining the exact taxonomy of the dog family is the interfertility that exist between certain species in the genus Canis. The dog/dingo/New Guinea singing dog/Holarctic wolf species (Canis lupus) can interbreed with the coyote (Canis latrans), the golden jackal (Canis aureus), and the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) and produce fertile offspring. Coyotes and golden jackals have been interbred in captivity and have also produced fertile offspring, so it is likely that all of these animals can hybridize with each other. According to the phylogenetic tree drawn from sequencing the dog genome, the Ethiopian wolf was the earliest offshoot of the interfertile Canis lineage , diverging 3 to 4 million years ago. And of the ”interfertile four,” it is the most distantly related to the Canis lupus species, which strongly suggests that all four species can produce hybrids.

Potential interfetility alone is not the test for determining species, so one should not make the error of claiming that all of these interfertile dogs represent a single species.

They don’t.

Each of these animals has a unique evolutionary history, and they don’t normally hybridize in the wild. Wolves and coyotes only cross when wolf populations are very low, and the male wolves mate with female coyotes. It is very difficult to get a dogs and golden jackals to crossbreed, though there may be be some evidence of dog genes in golden jackal population. Only the Bale Mountains National Park Ethiopian wolves have been found to cross with domestic dogs.

Ethiopian wolf « The Retriever, Dog, & Wildlife

There is a some evidence that as man moved south after coming to the Americas, he killed off the large cats, bears, sloths, mammoths and other large animals. They weren't victims of evolution, but victims of men.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Have we heard of any "Random mutations" that have created human that can thrive in salt water? That would give them a tremendous competitive advantage, no?

No. Humans very rarely have a need to drink seawater, and humans reproduce just fine without that ability. Hence, there's no significant competitive advantage to it. The ability to drink seawater would have to come along with major drawbacks, such as an expanded and energy-eating renal system, or a less efficient nerve structure that could handle higher salt ion concentrations. Those drawbacks would far outweigh any advantages, thus it would be a detriment to survival.

But there are many creature that flourish in sea water, so the drawbacks don't see to be much of a drawback

 

[CrusaderFrank]

If it were "toxic", would we be able to swim in it?

I don't know any land animals that drink salt water. In fact, even most creatures that live in fresh water can't drink it.

God you're dumb.

We wouldn't be able to shower in it either, but specifically said "Drink" We need to drink water to be able to survive, specifically fresh water..

Why haven'y ANY land animals evolved the ability to drink salt water?

Odd, no?

Ocean mammals like whales and dolphins used to be land animals. It's why they have finger bones inside of their fins. THEY DEVELOPED THE ABILITY TO DRINK SALT WATER.

Like I said, you are an idiot. Did I do a good job setting you up for that or what?

Don't mess with the DEAN!​

Wait a second.

YOU said, "I don't know any land animals that drink salt water." That was you, correct?

 

[konradv]

If we "evolved" from salt water why can't we drink it?

There is nothing stopping you from drinking it, moron.

It's toxic to us Rderp, it would be as if Oxygen were poisonous to us.

Actually during the early days of evolution, there was very little oxygen. It was a waste product that became the standard of respiration later, as organisms evolved to use it.

 

[Mushroom]

Do not forget the effects of a good die-off for causing significant changes in a breed either. Or the introduction of a foreign animal to cause either increased competition, or increased hunting.

Australia and North America are great examples. In many ways, these 2 continents were cut off from the others, and evolved life in a very unique manner.

For one, these are the only 2 inhabitable continents with no native primates. Also, neither has a true "apex predator" native to the continents. These two things alone make for some rather ecological nitches.

In North America, you had a dry temperate landscape that was cut off from South America by a large desert. So when the ice age came to an end, most of the megafauna died off, leaving giant gaps. Homotherium, American Lion, Smilodon ("Sabre Tooth Tiger"), American Cheetah, Dire Wolf, Short-faced Bear, every single large predator larger then the Cougar went extinct.

And the Americas and Australia was also the only place that the marsupial remained. Where in Africa-Asia-Europe, cross migrations and increased competition rendered them extince long ago.

Quite often we simply see slow adaptations in one group of a species because they allow them to adapt better in a set environment. Then something happens (ice age, current shift, vulcanisation, etc) and the larger parent population dies off. So we are left with the changed version to recolonize an area.