Yet Another Discovery

Study leader Oswaldo Cortes, a graduate student at La Universidad Distrital in Colombia, says the discovery highlights how little is known about the biodiversity of Earth and how many species are left undiscovered.

www.livescience.com...

I found it quite interesting that this frog only inhabits a very limited geographic area. I thought it also a very good point in the article that many different types of species may have existed but were never discovered at all.

The increase in the identification of previously unknown forms of life on our own planet continues to impress me. I realize modern technology has aided this process tremendously but the article, and others like it, are a constant reminder of the virtually limitless possibilities that lie ahead.

What exists on land, in the sea, and out in space yet to be found are almost incomprehensible. There is something incredibly exciting about the unknown becoming known whether it's the less than one inch frog mentioned in the article above, a microbial life form, or some huge hole in the universe.

reply to post by trek315


Its always amazed me how the earth is teeming with so many different kinds of life. Even the most inhospitable place seem to support some forms of life. From deep caverns & mines to hot ocean vents, to bacterial & microbial life on in the vast glacers, life abounds.

If there is a creator, and I'm convinced there is, this earth must be the cosmic Garden of Eden, well equipped to jump start life someday in all parts of the universe.

The reason the planet has so much diversity in its life forms is due to the several mass-extinctions in our history. Every time most of the life on the planet is killed off, the resultant explosion of evolution to fill the empty habitat niches is larger and more diverse.

If it weren't for the fact that we've had several mass extinctions in the past four billion years, we wouldn't have the lush planet we have now.

In a way, our causing this latest mass extinction will only increase the diversity of life to be found in the future.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


Wow, I gave you a 'star' for that post. Very clear and concise and precise explanation of that aspect of species diversity and mass extinctions.

Wouldn't it be a 'hoot' (shudder) if looking back on old Planet Earth from a starship in the future we learn that we are actually one extinction away from the incredibly robust sentient form that springs up in the period of re-birth a million or so years post-Extinction, in the future, and -that- is the life form that ends up ruling the Galaxy?

I mean, so much for 'Man' being the top of the pyramid.

I'm kind of picturing a dinosaur/dolphin hybrid, like a 'super Man from Atlantis', resistant to radiation, able to breathe under water, maybe even with some ability to fly, super intelligent and with the sense of harmony and community that dolphins appear to have?






[edit on 29-8-2007 by Badge01]

Woop-ti-doo Trek what does it all mean!


Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 29-8-2007 by Jbird]

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


Interesting theory Major, please correct me if I'm wrong but is this what you are suggesting;

If I understand you correctly, you suggest that each time a mass extinction event, (large meteorite collision, nuclear war?, etc), occurs, then whilst some species do become extinct, most do not but they experience population culls.
As a result isolated pockets evolve differently to others of the same species but in another isolated pocket.
Also, there is greater opportunity to migrate and thus encounter new environments which require different skills and traits and thus further evolution.

Originally posted by Badge01

Where have I seen this dude before? He looks so familiar... which show?

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


Thats an interesting viewpoint. If a mass extinction occurred what would be the mechanism to cause an explosion in evolution? It would seem to me that if an organism was aready Fit enough to survive a mass extinction, there would be no evolutionary advantage to now change its design. I don't see how a larger, less populated habitat would encourage evolutionary changes. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, I just don't understand.

Maybe someone can help me see the light. Always interested in new ideas.

[edit on 29-8-2007 by Sparky63]

[edit on 29-8-2007 by Sparky63]

Sparky63: Simply put, when mass extinctions occur, evolutionary niches that were once occupied are now vacant. For example when the dinosaurs died off, little mammalian rodents started to evolve into cats, dogs, elephants and such to fill the gaps that was left behind by the raptors, carnosaurs and hadrosaurs. Does this make sense?

reply to post by Beachcoma


I can see how this would lead adaptions within the species, but an animal that at one time live in the swamp but now has more room (do to mass extinction for example of other species),
so that is can now spread out to the fields does not need to become a new species in order to do so. Those that are able to survive better because they have sharper teeth or longer claws for example might supplant those who did not, but that is still adaption within the species.

If there is an explosion of new species, it must in my opinion be the result of some other mechanism.

Well, to continue your swamp-thing example, say the swamp becomes filled with swamp-things. Resources would become limited there from the overpopulation. This would lead to swamp-things with a genetic mutation that allows them to become field-things to actually go to that field and earn their livelihood there, since there's plenty of competition in the swamp.

You've got to remember that the diversification doesn't happen over night nor is it over in a century. It could take several millennia.

Out of One, Many

In the light of the discussion that has followed her post, I'd just like to clarify what Major Malfunction said by pointing out that, at the end of every mass extinction, it isn't a large number but a few species, relatively speaking, that survive.

This is what the fossil record shows us.

When the extinction event has passed, what you get is a relatively empty planet, with not a few but literally countless ecological niches -- more accurately, potential niches -- to be filled.

Remember also that the extinction event, whatever it is, may well have changed physical conditions on Earth, such as temperature and the composition of surface soil, water, atmosphere, etc., in radical ways. Subsequent speciation will take account of these changes and exploit them, causing a proliferation of new species.