reply to post by Kayzar
With evolution being small changes over time there should be several intermediate fossils from something like A.Robustus to Homo Habilis but as
we find more we find different species with their own characteristics.
I always find it entertaining that people coming from a Young Earth, we-did-not-evolve-because-the-odds-are-stacked-up against it perspective never
even point to fossilisation of terrestrial animals as a potential miracle. It's not easy to do. You have to die in the right place, settling into an
anaerobic environment ASAP to prevent every last scrap being broken down before you even make an impression and, which is possibly more, someone has
to dig you up before the filled-in impression of your decay erodes away to nothing.
Add to that the variability of current humans. We have not, and to my mind will not, ever discover an entire fossilised population of individuals, and
to assume that the one or two that we do dig up are at the top of the bell-curve is pushing it. They could fall anywhere on the bell-curve, and the
chances are, there would be a great deal of variation away from their particular form at any given point in history.
So naturally the argument will shift into the punctuated equilibrium where evolution does not mean small changes over time but now means it happens
in spurts, i guess you kind of have to change things to suit your beliefs.
Classification of different forms as different species, which I note has its roots in the work of a creationist (Linnaeas) does of course give an
image of punctuated equilibrium. I would suggest that many of the pre-human homonid fossils do not actually represent distinct species, just members
of the ancestral H. sapiens population whose characteristics were not passed on to any great extent. Of course, i would also suggest that we and the
genus Pan are actually congenic, so...
Where is that intermediate between no life and life?
Viruses, prions, self-replicating units of non-coding DNA or RNA within the genomes of life forms...
Why were we the only ones to get smart? Take a look at where man was 50 million years ago and then take a look at where a horse was 50 million
years ago. Since then man has created science,art and porn. The horse got bigger and has hooves instead of toes...
Define smart.
Chances are, your definition ends up being analogous to "human-like in thought".
Where it comes to horses, well, they have certain challenges to face: 1) find sufficient food to sustain body, 2) avoid being eaten, 3) have babies.
They work very well at doing these - better, in fact, than a lot of humans.
When it comes to intelligence, in a domestic horse, this is not usually considered a good thing - a horse that realises that it does not have to put
up with being kicked and beaten for the sake of oats and the odd carrot, and also that, provided that its rider does not have a knife or gun to hand,
it can do a lot more damage to its rider than vice-versa, is liable to throw its rider, trample them for good measure, and run off to make a new home
in the new forest.
Breeders don't, as such, tend to choose such particularly "spirited" horses as stallions, and so a male horse with that attitude would historically
have lost his reproductive capabilities through castration or death. An unrideable horse still makes a serviceable steak. A female horse with such an
attitude would be harder to sterilise, but would tend to respond aggressively to the (usually aggressive) advances of a stallion, and might well
render herself effectively sterile.
Of course, this has changed recently. People are not so happy to put a bullet in a bad horse's brain, especially when the horse comes with a valuable
pedigree, and a certain level of fight is often a very good thing when it comes to racing. But a couple of hundred years of relaxed selection on the
relatively limited gene-pool of domestic horses is unlikely to be sufficient to completely reverse trends going back thousands of years.
edit on 7/1/2011 by TheWill because: (no reason given)
edit on 7/1/2011 by TheWill because: (no reason given)
