Evolutionary blunders?

[daemonowner]

(17-03-2011 07:32 PM)Cdf50 Wrote:  I was thinking less of vestigal organs, but more of functional body parts that are just poorly designed. Organs that work, but there's no way that any engineer in their right mind would design it that way.

Humans in general. The human spine is a good example of that, our spine is built for walking on all fours, which is why other primates don't get as many back problems as us. The human spine evolved rather rapidly in the scheme of things, and such hasn't adapted very well.
The eye is another obvious one.

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(17-03-2011 09:22 PM)mBear Wrote:  

(17-03-2011 09:08 PM)Cdf50 Wrote:  

(17-03-2011 08:49 PM)mBear Wrote:  Something I learned time and time again was that Evolution didn't do something for no reason. If an organism develops a structure (or loses one), it didn't do so for no reason; a selection pressure caused it to evolve that way. So a vestigial organ is just the loss of that organ, which is just an important evolutionary transition as gaining an organ so I wouldn't call it a blunder.

Look back to the laryngeal nerve referenced in my first post. That's something done for pretty much no reason. Evolution isn't perfect, it does make mistakes.

I know, I never said evolution is perfect I meant to add in a comment about the laryngeal nerve being the only Evolutionary 'mistake' I've ever heard of, but I'm sure more do exist.

Well, actually... The reason the laryngeal nerve evolved as it did was because it was so much simpler to just add a bit to the length each time, instead of rerouting the entire thing. So there is a reason why its like that, even in giraffe's.

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(17-03-2011 09:22 PM)karlt10 Wrote:  We have gills in the embryo stage.....

Thats a good one.

[Cdf50]

Well i don't mean that evolution does things for no reason, Dae, but more that not every change brought about by evolution is beneficial to survival and well constructed

edit: By beneficial to survival, i mean, not optimally.

[mBear]

(17-03-2011 09:22 PM)karlt10 Wrote:  We have gills in the embryo stage.....

As well as a post-anal tail. All Chordates have those in the embryonic stage, but get reabsorbed.

One more thing that amazed me was learning how many times features such as limbs were gained, lost, then gained again throughout the evolutionary history. It seems to me like the 'intelligent designer' couldn't make up his mind

[No J.]

(18-03-2011 01:52 PM)Cdf50 Wrote:  Well i don't mean that evolution does things for no reason,

Actually, evolution doesn't do anything at all, if you want to get technical. Natural selection and survival of the fittest are the driving forces that create changes. Evolution is the changes that result from the those driving forces. This process has no forsight. Many creatures have evolved into specialists for one particular environment, and then went extinct because they could not survive environmental changes.

[Cdf50]

(18-03-2011 11:58 PM)No J. Wrote:  

(18-03-2011 01:52 PM)Cdf50 Wrote:  Well i don't mean that evolution does things for no reason,

Actually, evolution doesn't do anything at all, if you want to get technical. Natural selection and survival of the fittest are the driving forces that create changes. Evolution is the changes that result from the those driving forces. This process has no forsight. Many creatures have evolved into specialists for one particular environment, and then went extinct because they could not survive environmental changes.

POOP YOU AND YOUR POOPY TECHNICALITIES. ;D

[Stark Raving]

HEY HEY! No saying poop on this forum!!!!!!


Aw fuck, look what you made me do! I said poop.

....shit, I said it again....

[jmason37]

(17-03-2011 07:32 PM)Cdf50 Wrote:  I was thinking less of vestigal organs, but more of functional body parts that are just poorly designed. Organs that work, but there's no way that any engineer in their right mind would design it that way.

A phonetics professor of mine pointed out the blunder of our air passageway crossing our food passageway, resulting in sometimes fatal choking. Was the "Great Designer" trying to enforce silence at mealtimes?

[TheKetola]

That doesn't explain why I nearly choked to death yesterday when I was completely silent, so suck it random phonetics professor!

pooooooooooooop!

[Cdf50]

Could have been saliva.

[TheBeardedDude]

How about the rabbit in general? The intestines precede the stomach in the rabbit. This means that wild rabbits, important to note because tame rabbits are fed preprocessed pellets, have to eat their food twice. You heard that correctly. In order to obtain any nutritional value from their food they have to digest it twice by consuming their fecal material. They are smart enough to not eat the poop of their poop but how about that for a blunder! I believe this is an example that Stephen Jay Gould gave when he was asked to think of an unintelligent design. Don't quote me on that.