• pinkystew@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    It bothers me how many people think that evolutionary traits are in any way chosen or designed for a specific purpose.

    • scutiger@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Same here. Evolution doesn’t work that way. It’s basically the opposite. Species don’t evolve to solve a problem, they evolve randomly and sometimes that solves a problem for them. Or sometimes, it pushes the species into a very narrow niche where its survival is ensured as long as the current extremely precarious situation they find themselves in doesn’t change.

      • kevin
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        21 hours ago

        Species don’t evolve to solve a problem, they evolve randomly and sometimes that solves a problem for them.

        Eh… they mutate randomly, and then selection acts. If there is variation that solves a problem, selection will promote that variation.

        Evolution is very much not random, it is a direct consequence of variation and selection. This does not mean that they evolve to solve problems, but problems often drive evolution.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Selected through continued survival and reproduction. Maybe a more accurate template would be something like, “Awesome, I’ve evolved with [trait] which deters predators!”

    • iii
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      21 hours ago

      Who designed the process of evolution?

      (Jk)