I hear folks saying bugs are dying off because of changes in the environment, but shouldn’t bugs be some of the best equipped to handle changes? I imagine they reproduce faster than humans, and so I’d think their genes could adjust faster as well. You’d think we’d be having a worse time than bugs as the environment changes?
In: Biology
Adaptation is a result of mutation, and genetic mutations are random.
A human is born with a third arm not because it needs one, but because a mutation caused it to have one.
Does the human find the third arm helpful or a hindrance? If the third arm is helpful, it could lead to them having more children with a chance to also have a third arm. Over the course of generations, there’s a far-off chance that most people will wind up having have a third arm.
If the third arm is a hindrance — so much so that the human doesn’t have children — then that genetic mutation dies with it.
When an insect is born, does its body scan the environment and decide to give it an ability that will allow it to thrive? No, it’s built based on its inherited genetics, and a chance mutation may or may not help it thrive in whatever circumstances its born under.
You have to always remember, that mutations/adaptation happens in utero. No one is born and then their body decides to spontaneously grow a third eye to help it avoid their contemporary predators.
Mutation is a completely random luck of the draw, and it happens inside the womb (or inside an egg).
Latest Answers