Evolution? How?

Aww shucks, had one in my back yard. But I lost it.

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spendius wrote:

timber wrote-

Quote:
E=MC²

Do you really believe the C squared. I've always taken it as shorthand for a very big number.

Is it actually literally true?

spendi, it is shorthand of a sort, but belief doesn't factor into it at all; its a demonstrated constant, it is at once literally and mathematically true. And its not really all that big a number, either - in meters-per-second, only 9 x 10^16. Well, actually, a little less; 8.9875517873681764 x 10^16 is a more exact figure, but even though its not a really big number, the 9 x 10^16 shorthand figure works well enough in most applications. Now, if you really wanna express it as a very big number, and very much more precisely, use the international standards of the oscilation period of the cesium atom as oppposed to seconds and the wavelength of krypton-86 as opposed to meters.

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farmerman wrote:

Today, at Tokelau ( islands near Thailand) there is a native( but introduced) population of pigs , that have developed a low tide habit of swimming in the coral reefs to foage for seafood. The pigs
have become excellent swimmers and some degree of morphological changes have been noted in the population. There are examples of these adaptive mechanisms in a number of species. I wonder what the polar bear will become?

The pinipeds were probably arose from predators, just like the polar bears. But the Ursine branch has never had the need to be come aquatic (at least not yet). I bet they would make very formidible bear-whales over time Smile

However, the current polar bear population probably doesn't have much variation expressed in its gene pool, which makes it relatively unlikely that they would survive an environmental shift which pushes the existing form beyond survival capability.

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farmerman wrote:

Today, at Tokelau ( islands near Thailand) there is a native( but introduced) population of pigs , that have developed a low tide habit of swimming in the coral reefs to foage for seafood. The pigs
have become excellent swimmers and some degree of morphological changes have been noted in the population. There are examples of these adaptive mechanisms in a number of species. I wonder what the polar bear will become?

The pinipeds were probably arose from predators, just like the polar bears. But the Ursine branch has never had the need to be come aquatic (at least not yet). I bet they would make very formidible bear-whales over time Smile

However, the current polar bear population probably doesn't have much variation expressed in its gene pool, which makes it relatively unlikely that they would survive an environmental shift which pushes the existing form beyond survival capability.

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Sorry for the duplicate post. The system threw a different type of error at me and I didn't know it created the first post.

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You can immediately delete a second post if nobody else has posted. Or, even then, you can report the dup and a moderator will delete it.

With the North Pole ice cap melting, the polar bear could become extinct.

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It was also reported several months ago that the penguins south of New Zealand were in danger of extinction from the melting ice.

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That, too. But there's no global warming. Someone just left the freezer door ajar.

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I read that under certain circumstances, small isolated populations with little apparent variance, can morph relatively quickly (by evolutionary standards) because any beneficial mutation/adaptation is quickly optimized within the small group setting. Whereas in large group settings, such a beneficial mutation/adaptation may either get "absorbed" or take much longer to have a group net effect.

Also it suggested than if/when such accelerated evolution takes place, the chances of fossil records would be correspondingly low.

IOW although there is more risk to the survival of the species with a small group, the potential for accelerated evolution may at times be a saving grace.

I'm not implying we should gun down polar bears to help them adapt!

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cicerone imposter wrote:

Man continues to search for the oldest human to prove our common ancestry from the apes. The big 64 million dollar question is, are there any fossils left to solve this question?

I thought you were the oldest human, CI.

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At 70, I'm an old geezer, but not the oldest.

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Ya, your tied with Frank.

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Just when I get serious, the rest of you wieners go off!

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Speaking of Frank, where has the old boy been lately?

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Playing golf.

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Doesn't he know he has responsibilities are on this site.

Golf is like religion, it possesses you; it enslaves you. Listening to these poor possessed golf nuts talk is like listening to a Muslim talking about Muhammad.

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Read P. G. Wodehouse on golf sometime . . . hilarious . . .

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Chumly wrote:

Just when I get serious, the rest of you wieners go off!

Well you were the one who wrote that you were not implying what you wrote - but wrote it anyhow. Smile

Calling CI and xingu and Set wieners! For shame!

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Yer an annoyin' little sh$t at times, ya know ?

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Nyeah!

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