How do Animals Evolve To Look Like Exact Replicas of Other Things in Nature?

[SumBlackguyz]

I get the basic fundamentals of evolution, but how does a creature evolve to look exactly like a certain leaf or another living creature though? Leaf bugs have the exact markings and colorations as trees, dead leaves, sticks etc

i could see a snake evolving with colors to match its environment but i dont get how something could straight up hijack somebody else's exact physical appearance. its not just the looks, body parts will be positioned in certain ways to match the camouflage as well. the whole concept is to me

Spoiler

 

[daze23]

 

[rantanamo]

Easy. Think of that dude Dede the Treeman. There are others that have his disease and have body markings like him. Imagine if there were some giant ass cats that were hunting us before we had houses. The only way to hide would be camouflage if we weren't smart enough to make our own or make weapons. So like any other animal, the one that survive would be the ones that can hide. In this case, the people with bad cases of HPV would be able to hide best, so those people would survive and mate. The perfection of those traits is in part with the evolution of the predator as well. They are getting better eyesight and sense of smell, so those that survive are those that look and smell most like trees. So over millions of years of only the most tree like surviving you'd end up with only people that really look like trees.

 

[Breh Obama]

Natural Selection

 

[OneManGang]

I think most people who are skeptical of evolution don't realize 2 things. The amount of damage and bombardment a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) takes every single day by just an organism breathing...yes breathing. Not to mention UV radiation, gamma radiation, etc...These things cause mistakes to be made during repair in addition to other environmental factors which in turn leads to mutations. And the second, these mutations over MILLIONS, not weeks or months or decades....millions of years these mutations matter. Only the most successful mutations for the environment will win out.

Having said that, we don't know definitively the exact mechanisms of say how grizzly bears who wandered up to the arctic got bigger, clear hair, and slightly different skeletal and muscular characteristics....but we can see that the evolutionary process allows for that kind of change.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

fukking magic.

 

[The Real]

I think most people who are skeptical of evolution don't realize 2 things. The amount of damage and bombardment a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) takes every single day by just an organism breathing...yes breathing. Not to mention UV radiation, gamma radiation, etc...These things cause mistakes to be made during repair in addition to other environmental factors which in turn leads to mutations. And the second, these mutations over MILLIONS, not weeks or months or decades....millions of years these mutations matter. Only the most successful mutations for the environment will win out.

Having said that, we don't know definitively the exact mechanisms of say how grizzly bears who wandered up to the arctic got bigger, clear hair, and slightly different skeletal and muscular characteristics....but we can see that the evolutionary process allows for that kind of change.

Just to emphasize the notion of Deep Time, remember that all these basic processes are occurring over a period of time incomprehensible to humans. Deep time is so vast that we can only talk about it using obtuse metaphors- our minds are literally not capable of grasping such a time scale directly since it goes so far beyond anything within our biological experience. I think a lot of people miss that when they accept natural selection, but don't see how it can lead to things like the OP's example.

 

[hjhblkhj]

Just to emphasize the notion of Deep Time, remember that all these basic processes are occurring over a period of time incomprehensible to humans. Deep time is so vast that we can only talk about it using obtuse metaphors- our minds are literally not capable of grasping such a time scale directly since it goes so far beyond anything within our biological experience. I think a lot of people miss that when they accept natural selection, but don't see how it can lead to things like the OP's example.

so basically you have to put faith in something you can't prove or even fully comprehend because without it your belief system falls apart

 

[The Real]

so basically you have to put faith in something you can't prove or even fully comprehend because without it your belief system falls apart

No, because you see the effects of the passage of time on evolving organisms on the small scale. The point is to extrapolate that into a longer time frame, which is a logical induction, not faith. Faith would be seeing no change over time on the small scale and then suggesting that change happens over a longer scale with nothing to go on to support it.

 

[OneManGang]

so basically you have to put faith in something you can't prove or even fully comprehend because without it your belief system falls apart

Single cell organisms mutate and evolve all the time. They reproduce much faster and are...wait for it...one cell. Organisms made up of trillions of cells can handle mutatations for the most part because there are so many cells. Mutations occurring in the gonads of large animals are what really matters. The new generations express the mutation. It takes millions of years for larger creatures to mate and pass on succesful mutations.

 

[hjhblkhj]

My point was evolution is faith based since evolution has never been observed. It's based on people making assumptions of the past and people having faith in those assumptions. Or as Richard Dawkins said Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening. NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. December 3, 2004 | PBS

 

[VerbalIntercourse]

I don't think people need geologic timescales to understand evolution.

Lactose tolerance took over two populations in a thousand years.

Mass microbial resistance to antibiotics happened in 50 years.

 

[Dark Knyght]

I don't think people need geologic timescales to understand evolution.

Lactose tolerance took over two populations in a thousand years.

Mass microbial resistance to antibiotics happened in 50 years.

Exactly, evolution occurs in mosquitoes and bacteria/ microbes within our lifetimes since they have much faster reproductive cycles and shorter lifespans. I don't know why this doesn't get brought up in evolution vs creationism debates. Mosquitoes are constantly evolving against things such as pesticides. Thats why every some odd years or so, they have to come up with something stronger since the mosquitoes over time have adapted through mutation (AKA evolve) to resisting the previous version of the pesticide. All organisms go through these changes over periods of time due to selective environmental pressure. The longer the life span/reproductive cycle between generations the longer its gonna take for the organism to adapt to the changing environment. Obviously since life cycles from generation to generation in animals are much longer, then these selective pressures will have to be sustained as well from generation to generation.

 

[OsO]

Having said that, we don't know definitively the exact mechanisms of say how grizzly bears who wandered up to the arctic got bigger, clear hair, and slightly different skeletal and muscular characteristics....but we can see that the evolutionary process allows for that kind of change.

what do you think is the driving force behind the mutations that occur in living things?

not a set up, im genuinely interested in hearing your opinion

 

[OsO]

Exactly, evolution occurs in mosquitoes and bacteria/ microbes within our lifetimes since they have much faster reproductive cycles and shorter lifespans. I don't know why this doesn't get brought up in evolution vs creationism debates. Mosquitoes are constantly evolving against things such as pesticides. Thats why every some odd years or so, they have to come up with something stronger since the mosquitoes over time have adapted through mutation (AKA evolve) to resisting the previous version of the pesticide. All organisms go through these changes over periods of time due to selective environmental pressure. The longer the life span/reproductive cycle between generations the longer its gonna take for the organism to adapt to the changing environment. Obviously since life cycles from generation to generation in animals are much longer, then these selective pressures will have to be sustained as well from generation to generation.

but natural selection supposedly has nothing to do with the external environment, correct?