feather wrote:
The "if we evolved from monkeys why do we still have monkeys?" argument ignores a basic of evolutionary development, the environment.
Remember Charles Darwin's eureka moment in the Galapagos Islands was the length of the tortoises necks on one isle compared to another. The height of the vegetation was the key. Those with longer necks could reach the higher vegetation and thrived, those with shorter necks starved and died off. On another island the species were unaffected because the vegetation was lower.
For that basic reason most species of creatures on earth split into sub-species that have adapted best to their surroundings.
Therefore it becomes clear that the development of a sub-species or mutation does not require the eradication of the original species.
One way of considering accelerated/forced evolutionary process would be dog breeding.
By selecting and isolating the desired traits and breeding to that aim we have the huge variety of mutts we see today.
From St Bernards to Chihuahuas. Yet they all derive from the Wolf, which still exists in relatively large numbers.
They are a certainly a case of 'unnatural selection' granted, but they illustrate the process.
We isolated them, reduced their partner options to those of similar attributes, filtered the offspring and repeat.
In effect, we created artificial Galapagos Islands.
Now place a St Bernard in the hot South American landscape, and the Chihuahua in the Alps and watch them both die off quickly because they are unsuited to the environment.
They are a certainly a case of 'unnatural selection' granted, but they illustrate the process.
We isolated them, reduced their partner options to those of similar attributes, filtered the offspring and repeat.
In effect, we created artificial Galapagos Islands.
Now place a St Bernard in the hot South American landscape, and the Chihuahua in the Alps and watch them both die off quickly because they are unsuited to the environment.
Certain species do grow according to their surroundings, here would be a perfect example, if you were to take two goldfish. put one in a goldfish bowl and another in a pond, what happens eventually?
