Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
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Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#2Darwin believed that each successive generation of a species had increasing mutations leading to a gradual divergence. Another school of thought believes that a species remains at equilibrium until some environmental stressor activates a rapid divergence. If this "punctuated equilibrium" is true, climate change will give rise to many new species, as would all mass extinctions.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#3I've always said it's not the Tree of Life, but rather the DAG of Life.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#45% - 8% of human genome appears to be from [retro]virus inserts. Thats outside the tree of descent.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#5I've always said it's not the Tree of Life , but rather the DAG of Life .
It may not even be acyclic. For example it appears fetal DNA is permanently detectable in mothers and may even have health benefits that conceivably increase the mother’s evolutionary fitness.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#6Darwin believed that each successive generation of a species had increasing mutations leading to a gradual divergence. Another school of thought believes that a species remains at equilibrium until some environmental stressor activates a rapid divergence. If this "punctuated equilibrium" is true, climate change will give rise to many new species, as would all mass extinctions.
What Darwin knew about biology is incommensurate with a modern understanding of the word "mutation". A generation later than him, biologists still believed cells were formless blobs of jelly, so to speak.
Punctuated equilibrium is even less defensible given our present understanding of the molecular basis of genetics.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#7It's certainly a tree of individuals, though with single-celled division even that is not clear.
Things get tricky when you talk about species, because species are (arbitrary?) equivalency classes of individuals.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#8I've always said it's not the Tree of Life , but rather the DAG of Life .
It may not even be acyclic. For example it appears fetal DNA is permanently detectable in mothers and may even have health benefits that conceivably increase the mother’s evolutionary fitness.
The hypergraph of life?
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#9Evolutionary biology is sincerely beautiful, the biological history of our species is a meta-history to human history.
On a grander scale, the biological history of life itself weaves the career of the human race into a context of profound interconnectivity.
It's natural to contemplate your origins, the place and culture you come from, your ancestors and the history of your family. It's even more profound to contemplate your biological origins, your ancestry into species unrecognizable from your own.
It really is a humbling experience to trace a path thousands and even millions of years into the past. The end result is an increased appreciation for the beauty of nature and for the inseparable unity of the human race.
Re: Evolution is not a tree of life but a fuzzy network
#10I've always said it's not the Tree of Life , but rather the DAG of Life .
I'd go full mad and say the space continuum of life. Context is what drives life. Similar context breed similar forces and genes.