Evolution: poisonous frog self-protection (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 27, 2017, 15:13 (2396 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "Tarvin and her colleagues conclude that protein evolution can sometimes be part of a complex balance of survival challenges, and that some adaptations – such as the little devil’s poison – initially come at substantial cost."

DAVID's comment: This shows the stepwise development of some evolutionary adaptations.

dhw: Evolution is clearly a mixture of gradualism and saltation. Now that you have agreed organisms have an autonomous ability to change themselves, I'd be very interested to know if you regard this particular example as the workings of autonomous intelligence, or do you think it was preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago?

DAVID: I've only agreed that organisms can adapt epigenetically as the same species.

dhw: You have agreed that organisms have an autonomous mechanism for minor adaptations. I am now probing how far you think this mechanism is capable of going. Do you think the frog was capable of developing its own poison and resistance to its own poison, or do you think your God had to preprogramme it all 3.8 billion years ago?

Becoming poisonous and being self-protected must have developed simultaneously. Looks designed to me. The alteration of the nervous system afterward might well be an epigenetic adaptation.