- #1
Aidyan
- 180
- 13
There are several facts one wonders why evolution evolved some traits that look disadvantageous. The typical example that comes to mind is the appendix that has no function in our digestive system, and it can easily become infected. But several other aspects can be cited. Wisdom teeth in humans are also an example of a poor construction. They are of poor quality, and there is often not enough room for them in the jaw. Women have a narrow birth canal, which makes a suboptimal solution because childbirth both more dangerous and more painful than in other species.
The human eye is constructed so that the ‘cables’ lie on top of the retina and block some of the incoming light from reaching the photosensitive cells. Not very smart. There are no photosensitive cells in the blind spot, but you are not noticing this partial blindness on a daily basis because the brain compensates for the lack of visual information. Chlorophyll molecule is only able to utilize between 1 and 2 percent of the available energy in the sunlight. Humans are not able to synthesize the all-important vitamin C, unlike other mammals. Therefore, we must either obtain vitamin C through our food or die from scurvy.
Both the food that should be heading for the stomach and the air that should be heading for the lungs, enters our body via the same channel—the pharynx. The air, the food and the water follows the same route down to the point where the pharynx splits into the windpipe (trachea) and the oesophagus. The windpipe is luckily equipped with a small valve or flap—the epiglottis—that stops food from entering it, but the epiglottis sometimes closes too late. The result is that food enters your trachea, where it can cause fatal choking.
How should we interpret that according to modern evolutionary theories? Just flaws of evolution or could these ‘anomalies’ be explained otherwise?
The human eye is constructed so that the ‘cables’ lie on top of the retina and block some of the incoming light from reaching the photosensitive cells. Not very smart. There are no photosensitive cells in the blind spot, but you are not noticing this partial blindness on a daily basis because the brain compensates for the lack of visual information. Chlorophyll molecule is only able to utilize between 1 and 2 percent of the available energy in the sunlight. Humans are not able to synthesize the all-important vitamin C, unlike other mammals. Therefore, we must either obtain vitamin C through our food or die from scurvy.
Both the food that should be heading for the stomach and the air that should be heading for the lungs, enters our body via the same channel—the pharynx. The air, the food and the water follows the same route down to the point where the pharynx splits into the windpipe (trachea) and the oesophagus. The windpipe is luckily equipped with a small valve or flap—the epiglottis—that stops food from entering it, but the epiglottis sometimes closes too late. The result is that food enters your trachea, where it can cause fatal choking.
How should we interpret that according to modern evolutionary theories? Just flaws of evolution or could these ‘anomalies’ be explained otherwise?
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