LordCaptain t1_j8amayj wrote on February 12, 2023 at 10:15 PM

Reply to comment by RonSwansonsOldMan in TIL the closest whale relative that is not a marine mammal is the hippopotamus after the species diverged 54 million years ago. by SuperMcG

I'm going to try to avoid treating you like an idiot like most people here have and instead try to explain some things.

Evolution is based in reality and our long study and observation of the world.

We can start by saying that we do not have to rely solely on ancient fossils for determination.

There has been a long running study of evolution in bacteria that has run since 1988 and over 70 thousand generation where we have watched genetic adaptation in real time.

This has been replicated by other studies which have been running for shorter times.

We can stay modern and go outside of the lab environment though. Frog species around chernobyl have turned pitch black in an adaptation to protect from radiation evolving pigmentation and protection.

Then there is a classic of science that we can confirm things from seperate independant sources. We can roughly catagorize species based on similar traits and did so for a long time before being able to confirm these lineages through DNA and genetic evidence.

Then there is simply the fossil record. We can look back at fossils throughout history and see plain evidence of evolution and adaptation over time.

I encourage you to challenge your belief and look further into evolution and you will find that there is a vast amount of evidence for it.

gwaydms t1_j8c5ow1 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 5:13 AM

>Frog species around chernobyl have turned pitch black in an adaptation to protect from radiation evolving pigmentation and protection.

This is natural selection rather than evolution, although it certainly does play a part in evolution. It might be a fine point, but it's an important one.

Larkson9999 t1_j8co2x0 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 9:06 AM

Natural selection is evolution though. Helpful adaptations over millions of years causes different species.

gwaydms t1_j8dwa0f wrote on February 13, 2023 at 4:19 PM

It's one mechanism of evolution. If the situation to which the organism is adapting is temporary, natural selection will favor those that survive and reproduce best under those conditions that existed before.

Larkson9999 t1_j8dwlvv wrote on February 13, 2023 at 4:21 PM

That's still natural selection.

https://www.britannica.com/science/natural-selection

LordCaptain t1_j8e4e5u wrote on February 13, 2023 at 5:16 PM

It is evolution through natural selection but it is still most definitely evolution. It's a net directional change in the population. There isn't an arbitrary point where it turns from natural selection to evolution as the two aren't so simply separated.

gwaydms t1_j8emi2r wrote on February 13, 2023 at 7:16 PM

I didn't say they should be. I said natural selection is part of evolution, as are phenomena such as founder effect.