Natures wonders: no photsynthesis, no pollination (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 17, 2016, 15:09 (2957 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID’s comment: The symbiosis with a fungus is not unusual, but the reproductive method is like the hermaphroditic reproduction seen in animals. An odd twist to the usual evolutionary developments. It indicates that evolutionary progress is open to many, many roads that lead to survival.

dhw: It is indeed truly amazing how many different ways organisms arrange their own modes of survival. And we must always remember that vast numbers of them have NOT survived. It all seems to point to autonomous, inventive intelligences which sometimes succeed and sometimes fail in the great higgledy-piggledy of life’s history.

Yes 99% of all species are gone, yet bacteria are still here. The disappearance is in multicellular organisms, which are the vehicle for complexity as evolution finally creates H. sapiens. I see a drive for complexity as less than perfect organisms are cast aside by adverse conditions.