Dead Reptile

[rocky]

Good afternoon all. Being a newby, I hope you will forgive any unintentional errors on my part.

I have this picture in my head of a little reptile up a tree, looking at a tasty morsel in the next tree and thinking, "If I had wings, I could glide to the next tree and have lunch." If he tries to glide without wings, he'll end up as a smear on the forest floor, so no matter how many times this scenario occurs, there is no way to begin the evolution of wings. I have a problem with assuming evolution to be a (gigantic) series of serendipitous occurrences. Can anyone explain to me how such an evolution could occur?

[JohnJ]

Welcome to the Forum, rocky. I hope your interests here extend beyond a debate of evolution. With all due respect, it's more amazing to me that through adaptive behaviors you've arrived here looking for answers to your questions.

[bhtkevin]

Simple answer is mutations arent believed to be directed, but instead are random.

Some mutations are harmful to the species and those lines die out.

Some random mutations have no real effect and don't cause any noticable changes.

Some mutations give a competitive advantage over the same reptile without that mutation.

So you wouldnt just grow wings over time by jumping off a building. Something more like a random mutation results in extra skin being grown under forearms of a reptile. When this reptile jumps off a rock to catch a fly mid air, he is able to glide just a bit and now lives where others of his kind would die. He passes his genes and his offspring now have that same gliding ability. Add in millions of years and millions of mutations...

I am sure there are others on here more qualified to answer, but that is how I see it. The exact question you asked was with flight, and there is no real "answer" that can be proved, just many different educated guesses.

If you are truly interested, follow this link as it will give more more points to research.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/flight/evolve.html

[bhtkevin]

Welcome to the Forum, rocky. I hope your interests here extend beyond a debate of evolution. With all due respect, it's more amazing to me that through adaptive behaviors you've arrived here looking for answers to your questions.

Yeah I wasnt sure if this was a bait for a crazy evolution debate or a real question. Hard to know sometimes.

[frozen_turkey]

Evolution is basicly a fancy word for adaptation. As climits and enviroments change the organisums change or adapte with it. And over time two organisms of the same same speicies from 2 different locations can look completely different. Because they have adapted and evolved to fit their enviroment.

So basicly what im saying is that a organism will evolve only when there is a need to.

Didnt Darwin did a study with a certin speices of bird that were isolated on some islands? If you can find a paper on what darwin did it'll expain it better then i can.

-Frozen

PS im so glad i went to my Bio 1 class last week, we just went over this subject!

Edited November 23, 2010 by frozen_turkey

[BobWill]

Welcome from Texas, Rocky! Keep in mind that even evolution is evolving as new ideas gain favor over time.You may like to read Jack Horner's book " How to Build a Dinosaur" to learn how, for example, we can see "Darwinian Gradualism" is giving way in some quarters to "Punctuated Equilibrium" as a tool to bridge some of the gaps in the fossil record.

[Auspex]

Don't think in terms of "serendipity"; that which can persist, will, and that which cannot, will not. Looking back on the process from where we sit, it can seem that a "goal" was achieved, where really it is a case of the way things worked out over lots of time and changing environments.

[Coco]

Hi,

Didnt Darwin did a study with a certin speices of bird that were isolated on some islands? If you can find a paper on what darwin did it'll expain it better then i can.

I think it is the "finch of darwin" (I am not sure the translator give me the real name, but in french it is a "pinson").

Here is an article about these birds : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinson_de_Darwin but i think you can find some english information with G00gle.

Coco

[flyguy784]

" Looking back on the process from where we sit, it can seem that a "goal" was achieved, where really it is a case of the way things worked out over lots of time and changing environments"

An insightful but oft times forgoten realization.