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Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:38 pm
by Philosophy Explorer
Re: Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:00 am
by Lacewing
A new study of chickens overturns the popular assumption that evolution is only visible over long time scales. /... Previously, estimates put the rate of change in a mitochondrial genome at about 2% per million years. At this pace, we should not have been able to spot a single mutation in just 50 years, but in fact we spotted two."
There you go! There's hope for us to evolve out of this mess we're in faster than we could imagine. And who's to say that evolution remains at a steady state? It might start happening in flashes!
Re: Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:10 am
by Philosophy Explorer
Soon big hairless heads will be all the rage.
PhilX
Re: Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:11 am
by Melchior
Evolution is a process. Genetic change is the proper term.
Re: Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:54 am
by Hobbes' Choice
THe mDNA has no impact of on the genome of the chicken. As mitochondria do not contribute to the selective press of chickens 'evolution' this article is not particularly about evolution, but about mutation rates.
mDNA is passed from mother to chick without sex.
I'm surprised this article is so badly written.
Evidence of falling standards at Oxford. The heading implies "evolution is faster than thought" (thought happens at the speed of nervous impulses) which is amusing to say the least. Should be "evolution might be faster than was once thought."
The world is going to hell.
The real significance of this study would be for the analyses of mDNA as an indicator of human genetic drift used to plot the movements of humans across the planet to be called into question as they are based on a dubious claim that the mDNA rate is constant.
However One study of one species does not necessarily give us a new reliable mutation rate. It SHOULD up set the apple cart and call into question 50 years of work on human migration.
Re: Looks like evolution can happen very quickly
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:03 pm
by Hobbes' Choice
Philosophy Explorer wrote:Soon big hairless heads will be all the rage.
PhilX
You are missing the point as per usual.