Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!peregrine!ccicpg!felix!dhw68k!feedme!doug
From: doug@feedme.UUCP (Doug Salot)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution
Keywords: evolution
Message-ID: <112@feedme.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 88 09:09:08 GMT
References: <5944@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: doug@feedme.UUCP (0000-Doug Salot)
Distribution: sci.bio
Organization: Feedme Microsystems, Orange County, CA
Lines: 33

In article <5944@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> orwant@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan L Orwant) writes:
>I'm a bit confused about how special-purpose anatomical parts can evolve, e.g.
>the evolution of a bird's wings from an unwinged predecessor.
>
>If it happens gradually, then why isn't the 2% of a wing along the way an
>evolutionary detriment?
>
>-Jon Orwant (orwant@wheaties.ai.mit.edu)
>Pity me.  I'm a computer scientist. 

As a fellow pitiful CS-type, I present my own uninformed opinion (all
sentences have an implied "I think" prefix):

The selection aspect of evolution is highly overrated.  I'd bet
that neutral mutations (both [un]expressed) dominate [dis]advantageous
ones.  Consider a bird-like creature that can't fly but has some
vestigial arms that neither help nor hinder it.  At some point,
a descendent develops the ability to fly.  A new phenotype
enters the pool.  Going from a non-flying species to a flying one
seems especially independent of selection because a new niche is
found rather than better success in an old domain.  As the new
niche becomes populated, selective forces would probably act to
increase speed, distance, etc.

What I want to know is how did the cell and its organelles evolve?
I can imagine cell populations evolving into multicelled organisms,
but its quite a feat to go from primordial soup to an autonomous
factory.  There appear to be no selective forces, so an entire functional
cell has to organize pretty much by happenstance, right?

-- 
Doug Salot || doug@feedme.UUCP || ...{trwrb,hplabs}!felix!dhw68k!feedme!doug
                    "Thinking: The Thinking Man's Sport"