More about how evolution works: more on patterns (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 12:35 (2445 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "The researchers think a unique set of circumstances bring about this evolutionary déjà vu – a lack of diversity in predators, a limited set of genetics with a possible preprogramed DNA switch to facilitate the emergence of the three ecomorphs, a free-living lifestyle, and an environment that rewards only certain types of camouflage, all seem to contribute. (David's bold)

"While the exact reasons remain unclear, Gillespie and her team hope that further research into the similarities within this select group of organisms that evolve the same forms over and again will “provide insight into what elements of evolution are predictable, and under which circumstances we expect evolution to be predictable and under which we do not'”.

DAVID's comment: Note the bold. Could pre-programming be the key? I've suggested this as God's way of managing evolution.

Yes indeed you have. You are, I presume, suggesting that 3.8 billion years ago your God preprogrammed the first cells to make sure a certain type of spider would use three forms of camouflage on the Hawaiian islands in order to provide energy to keep life going until he could fulfil his sole purpose of producing the brain of Homo sapiens.

I wonder if perhaps these three forms have proved adequate to ensure the spiders’ survival, and so they don’t need to evolve anything different. And I wonder if this isn’t the basis of convergence – that organisms with similar problems find similar solutions. And I wonder what would happen if the vegetation turned orange with pink stripes. My prediction would be that if it did, either the spiders would adapt and survive, or they would fail to adapt and would perish. I shall apply for a grant to develop this theory.