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zakabog t1_jabpr91 wrote

Reply to comment by aartadventure in Why does temperature determine the sex of certain egg laying animals like crocodiles? by insink2300

> Most mutations are not good...

Based on what exactly? A single mutation isn't likely going to do much unless it happens in the correct place.

> It may be something more akin to flipping 50 or 100 heads in a row.

Which is rather easy if you've got millions of years to do it.

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aartadventure t1_jac3zfp wrote

It could be that most mutations do nothing bad, or that they end up being harmful in time, such as cancer. Here is one paper on the topic:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220608112504.htm

And yes, that was my point. Evolution tends to work slowly, over millions of years, due to the low chance of a beneficial mutation occurring, and then also being selected for in a given environment. And, since environments change, what was once beneficial, may end up becoming harmful over time.

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