A Reason why evolution will no longer continue.

Originally posted by Griffo
reply to post by JakiusFogg

 

Who is to say that this was not the first step in Sheep Evolution

For it to be the first step in sheep evolution, it would have to give the sheep an advantage allowing it to survive longer and in turn reproduce. It says in the article that the sheep could not walk, so that to me immediately comes across as a disadvantage.

And in the wild, this sheep would die, not giving the direct mutation an path to continue on. Now if the sheep is "fixed", and breeds, the mutation will be allowed to continue.

reply to post by iterationzero


I always thought that the `Peppered Moths` example was just a case of a population shift as both species(light and dark) already existed...color differences being a frequent/common variation in species.

reply to post by Wetpaint72


In the wild, why would it die, what is you evidence to support this theory.

If the next sheepy comes back with 6 legs we know this is solid developmental change, but maybe that genetic change was reliant on being able to prove itself, so know we'll never know!

reply to post by ironbutterflyrusted


It's a classic example of natural selection:

For hundreds of years the speckled moths were at an advantage, they camouflaged well with the trees so they rarely got eaten. Every once in a while a black one would be born and birds would quickly spot it and eat it because it was not camouflaged.

Then the industrial revolution came along and factories started producing a lot of soot causing the surrounding trees to become black. Now, this time the black months were excellently camouflaged providing them with an advantage whilst the speckled moths were at a disadvantage. This allowed them to reproduce more often until the black moths were the dominant ones.

During the latter half of the 20th century, there were laws passed to stop or reduce the amount of soot these factories emitted. This resulted in the trees losing their covering of soot and the speckled moths were at an advantage again, much to the disadvantage of the black moths. The black moths were no longer easily camouflaged and were easily spotted and eaten. The speckled moths were camouflaged again causing them to be in the majority