New Oxygen research; oxygen is needed (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, June 30, 2018, 10:29 (2338 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID’s comment: oxygen when plentiful allows evolution, but does not drive it.

dhw: I’m not sure that this is a valid distinction. Plentiful oxygen may trigger innovation by offering new opportunities, just as environmental factors trigger adaptation. In that sense it could be said to allow and to drive evolution.

DAVID: Allowing and triggering are two very different concepts. Note, you define trigger as offering to interpret your comment. When I pull the trigger on my pistol I'm not offering the bullet, especially if you are standing in the way.

dhw: Yes, they are different concepts, but that does not mean that the one precludes the other. Some organisms could not exist without the requisite amount of oxygen. The oxygen allows their existence. It is possible that an increased amount of oxygen was the first step in the process of innovation that marks the Cambrian. If so, the oxygen triggered innovation. Trigger: any event that sets a course of action in motion (Encarta). But thank you for not shooting me!

DAVID: Not so fast. Oxygen is a part of inanimate matter. Evolution is a process in living matter. Innovation can only occur in living matter, with or without oxygen. Anerobic organisms prove the point.

I’m not saying oxygen evolves! I’m saying changes in the environment may trigger evolutionary change - including innovation - in living organisms: climate, sun, water, atmosphere, earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroids, desertification, floods, pollution…and an increased amount of oxygen. Now you seem to be saying that none of these factors have any influence on evolution because they are inanimate!