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We have plenty of higher lifeforms so why are amoeba still here? Are they an important part of the food chain? What purpose do they serve?

PhilX

Philosophy Explorer wrote:We have plenty of higher lifeforms so why are amoeba still here? Are they an important part of the food chain? What purpose do they serve?

PhilX

We can rid ourselves of many puzzles by looking at the amoeba in terms of "function" rather than "purpose". Amoeba function within their environment without any sort of central nervous system. Amoeba can find food, find a mate, reproduce and learn to a limited extent without a single neuron.

Philosophy Explorer wrote:We have plenty of higher lifeforms so why are amoeba still here? Are they an important part of the food chain? What purpose do they serve?

PhilX

'Higher' is a relative term. Your thought presupposes a purpose or teleology for Evolution when the only 'purpose' is to be the 'fittest' sieved out by Natural Selection. The Amoeba has evolved to be just that for its environment. That's why it's still around.

The most successful lifeforms on Earth if we measure them by any means are the single celled lifeforms. Defined by proclivity by survivability, by fecundity: single cells triumph. In terms of evolution they are here, simply because they are far more successful than any other form. It is not arbitrary but it is evolution in a nut shell. Single celled life forms will be around in the universe in more numbers and to more success than any other type of being, long after the extinction or even evolution of us rather remedial complex organisms.

Evolution says most able to adapt, it has no regard for conscious minds or mediocre views on any sophistication, it does what it does. They survive not because of utility, but because of adaptability. Utility or use has no purpose in evolution, it is a human concept that means nothing at all to the blind watchmaker.