Biology Prove that evolution is constant (Provide at least two arguments to support your position)

[yo yo]

Homework Statement

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Relevant Equations

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I don't get how to argue it. i can prove: evolution is the ability to adapt, whether it's progression or regression from some point of view, so if evolution is not constant then animal generations couldn`t stay alive for a big amount of time because when climate is changing this generations die. but they dont. so evolution is constant.

but its not an argument, right?

how to fing arguments when i only prove it.. analytically, i guess it called that (this is indirectly related to biology, im sorry, but help please)

 

[DaveC426913]

Is this the question as presented? Is it school-related ? It's terrible.

1. While it's true that evolution is fact (go visit any pet store), you're not going to be able to "prove" its ... what? progress? Evolution is a noun, not a verb. Best you can do is make a good argument and provide compelling evidence for it. (To be clear, it appears you're not being asked to prove evolution is real, you're being asked to prove it has some sort of "rate").
2. What does "constant" even mean in the question? Gene sequences per generation? Who knows?

I'd spend the fist half of my paper excoriating the author for writing such a shitty question and then the teacher for allowing it to arrive at your door, and expand that into a criticism of the entire education system.

Then I'd devote the next 25% to drawing some assumptions about what they might be asking (essentially entirely rewriting the question).

Then I'd spend the last 25% of the paper starting to answer it, and providing evidence for my case, but being sure to end in the mddle of a sentence with "..." to drive home the point that you spent so many words educating the educators you ran out of words to answer (your own) question.

But that's just me.

 

[yo yo]

Is this the question as presented? Is it school-related ? It's terrible.

1. While it's true that evolution is fact (go visit any pet store), you're not going to be able to "prove" its ... what? progress? Evolution is a noun, not a verb. Best you can do is make a good argument and provide compelling evidence for it. (To be clear, it appears you're not being asked to prove evolution is real, you're being asked to prove it has some sort of "rate").
2. What does "constant" even mean in the question? Gene sequences per generation? Who knows?

I'd spend the fist half of my paper excoriating the author for writing such a shitty question and then the teacher for allowing it to arrive at your door, and expand that into a criticism of the entire education system.

Then I'd devote the next 25% to drawing some assumptions about what they might be asking (essentially entirely rewriting the question).

Then I'd spend the last 25% of the paper starting to answer it, and providing evidence for my case, but being sure to end in the mddle of a sentence with "..." to drive home the point that you spent so many words educating the educators you ran out of words to answer (your own) question.

But that's just me.

yeah, its school question... thanks for the answer

 

[BillTre]

There is lots of research concerned with different rates of evolution. This implies the answer is that its not constant.
As @DaveC426913 indicated, they didn't explain what they mean by rate. How it would be measured.
This means you could answer almost anything (like Dave did), but you may incur the wrath of the grader.

 

[DaveC426913]

Throw Stephen Jay Gould's "punctuated evolution" theory at them and cry "b*llsh*t"!

 

[gmax137]

I always thought Gould's term is "punctuated equilibrium"

 

[DrJohn]

Is your question as posted the actual wording of the question you were given?
I've seen many questions here which are like a bad summary, missing out key words.

 

[yo yo]

Is your question as posted the actual wording of the question you were given?
I've seen many questions here which are like a bad summary, missing out key words.

yeah, that`s the whole question, unfortunately

 

[Bandersnatch]

yeah, that`s the whole question, unfortunately

But is it translated from your mother tongue? The nuance might be lost in that case. The question might be e.g. asking you to show that evolution is a constantly occurring process.

 

[yo yo]

But is it translated from your mother tongue? The nuance might be lost in that case. The question might be e.g. asking you to show that evolution is a constantly occurring process.

no, it`s okay. in original "constant" has meaning that evolution is not an isolated event that happens only during certain periods

 

[DrJohn]

If it is not an isolated event, I'd say the question asks if evolution is constantly occurring. So you need to find examples of evolution still happening. EG certain moths or butterflies in the UK turned from white to brown or black due to smoke from trains meaning dark coloured insects were hard for predators to spot of trees darkened next to railway lines. Then the advent of electric trains caused the species to change colour again as trees stopped getting covered in smoke. I.E. there was no advantage being dark coloured nor disadvantage to being light coloured. But I can't remember the species involved. So look for examples of evolution in recent years.

EDIT: turned out to be easy to find the moth in question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution

 

[DaveC426913]

If it is not an isolated event, I'd say the question asks if evolution is constantly occurring. So you need to find examples of evolution still happening. EG certain moths or butterflies in the UK turned from white to brown or black due to smoke from trains meaning dark coloured insects were hard for predators to spot of trees darkened next to railway lines. Then the advent of electric trains caused the species to change colour again as trees stopped getting covered in smoke. I.E. there was no advantage being dark coloured nor disadvantage to being light coloured. But I can't remember the species involved. So look for examples of evolution in recent years.

EDIT: turned out to be easy to find the moth in question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution

This explanation has been strongly criticized. Specifically, the experimental methods are questioned that led to invalid conclusions.

“From time to time, evolutionists re-examine a classic experimental study and find, to their horror, that it is flawed or downright wrong.

...biologists realized that peppered moths almost never rest on tree trunks (as Kettlewell wrongly supposed when he initially released the moths onto tree trunks, creating atypical conditions). Instead, these night-flying insects probably spend their days hiding underneath horizontal branches high up in the trees, where they can’t be seen..."

... this 'prize horse in our stable of examples' of natural selection “is in bad shape, and, while not yet ready for the glue factory, needs serious attention”...
https://www.discovery.org/a/1263/

Google 'Peppered Moth evolution criticism' for many articles.

 

[Rive]

So you need to find examples of evolution still happening.

I think human pathogens have everything (on both the human and the pathogen side) what's needed here.
Just make sure that other adaptation factors are properly distinguished.

 

[ohwilleke]

I think that answer that the teacher is looking for is something along the idea of a discussion of the fact that the mechanisms of evolution, i.e. natural selection through choice of mate in a way that favors those who are selectively fit, reproduction at varying rates (both in generation length and number of offspring) that favors those who are selectively fit, and disproportionately low death rates for individuals who are selectively fit, continue to happen in every generation as a constant part of life. Retroviruses (i.e. viruses that change the DNA of people who are infected by them) are also ever present in the larger environment and continue their gene changing processes relentlessly.

When a population is well adapted to their current environment having lived there a long time, and the current environment is stable, the changes that evolution causes will be modest, while in an environment that has changed from the one that the population is optimally adapted to, the changes that evolution causes may be quite rapid and dramatic.

But, the underlying processes don't stop until a species goes extinct. The evolutionary process might pause if all members of the population are genetically identical and no phenotypically meaningful mutations take place, preventing the population from evolving through selection from the existing genetic diversity in the population. But that pretty much only happens in parthenogenetic species (i.e. species that can reproduce clones of themselves asexually).

 

[BillTre]

Extinction is also a part of evolution. Rates of extinction have been plotted vs. time and groups of organisms.
Even without visible or adaptionally significant changes in phenotypes, there will be more subtle changes in the underlying genome sequences. This would be genetic drift, changes in sequence which may not produce any apparent significant changes in an organism's phenotypes. These kinds of chnages could still happen in asexual clones.

 

[ohwilleke]

Extinction is also a part of evolution. Rates of extinction have been plotted vs. time and groups of organisms.

I guess it depends upon "in what" you are talking about evolution continuing. A species ceases to evolve when it is extinct, but the total biodiversity of the planet does continue to evolve until everything is extinct.

 

[BillTre]

By ceasing to evolve and no longer being present, and being extinct, the overall coarse of evolution of that species and others in its environment is changed.

 

[DaveC426913]

I always thought Gould's term is "punctuated equilibrium"

Indeed. That very thought has been skulking around the edge of my consciousness, peeking in windows and rattling doorknobs, since I first posted it.


(I have a personal degree of shame for muffing that up, as every member of my family has all his books on their coffee tables. My sister illustrated much of those books for Gould. These are all her:
https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1sd0wfZOo1ro0ixho1_1280.jpg)

 

[gmax137]

I used to read Goulds monthly column in Smithsonian (?) magazine.

Those are lovely illustrations @DaveC426913

 

[pinball1970]

I used to read Goulds monthly column in Smithsonian (?) magazine.

Those are lovely illustrations @DaveC426913

I was put off by baseball. The last thing an Englishman wants to read when starting a Biology book is opening a chapter on baseball.

I think I have a few of his books in my collection so I will get round to reading at least one.
Dawkins mentioned him in "Watchmaker" and seem to down play the apparent debate regarding P.E. and gradualism but I cannot remember the details.

 

[pinball1970]

I think this paper is relevant to the thread.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2025.1596591/full

From the conclusion.

“…most of life’s known, extant species richness belongs to relatively rapid radiations. Furthermore, many of these rapid radiations seem to be related to specific phenotypic traits, and thus may qualify as adaptive radiations (under some definitions). Overall, these results support the emphasis in evolutionary biology on finding the drivers of adaptive radiations and other rapid radiations. These results also suggest that much of life’s species diversity might be the products of a nested series of rapid radiations, with each radiation potentially triggered by a different trait (e.g. first multicellularity, then terrestriality, and then herbivory [within insects])….”

What do the biology guys think? @jim mcnamara @BillTre @Laroxe and others, I think Scott may be too.

 

[DaveC426913]

What is a radiation?

 

[pinball1970]

What is a radiation?

Many branches edit: rapid speciation

 

[BillTre]

What is a radiation?

Start with a single species.
It has some feature that is adaptive (makes it more likely that it and its offspring will survive and reproduce).
The species members proliferate and eventually speciate (and make more species).
This creates a radiation of related species with many similar inherited features.

 

[pinball1970]

What is a radiation?

COVID, the ultimate radiator! Have a look at the graphic genomic representation from China 2019 to today.