Joined: Feb. 2006
|Quote (Southstar @ Nov. 30 2011,13:38)|
|[quote=qetzal,Nov. 28 2011,19:58][/quote]|
Thank's for this it was really useful!
Just a consideration, is it possible that oraganisms left to themselves, without the pressures of natural competative selection would automatically tend toward loss of function.
After all they would just be responding to the new situation which requires less complex machinery.
What are your thoughts on this?
Well, like others have said, you can never completely escape from selection. Even if all resources were infinite, there would still be selection against mutations that cause death or infertility.
That said, there are lots of examples where organisms have lost functions that were no longer essential. A very well known example is that humans and related primates have lost the ability to synthesize vitamin C.
In some cases, there may even be advantages to not making something that's no longer needed.