Evolution Reconsidered - 2

By Wayne Brown

 


The "evolution" we taught in school presented confident progress all way from the mysterious beginnings of microorganisms to the triumph of the human form. If we remembered any of this, we walked away with an image of "evolution" that would conveniently fit into the idea of "God" secretly working behind the scenes to create a "Scientific" worldview that was satisfyingly also "religious" - depending on your comfort level.

If, for some reason, we dug deeper into this concept, we quickly ran into the idea of "punctuated equilibrium." There is no long, steady progress. It proceeds in fits and starts. Worse yet, almost all species seem to vanish at some point along the line. There is scant evidence that "better" versions replace the ones that die out. We do see trends toward bigger versions, but here too, evidence is thin.

When I first ran across the idea that evolution proceeded in this way, I imagined populations being separated for some reason (say, by a mountain range or climate), whereupon the separated groups would follow their own path.

Since 2019, we have been introduced to another species that is evolving quickly - COVID-19. Anyone who has thought the situation through will realize that a virus could wipe out humanity, quite apart from the "fitness" of our species. To cite an example, there is the mystery behind the disappearance of the Neanderthal sub-species of "Homo." It is customary to think about these guys being out-competed by "Sapiens." But is just as likely that the relatively small population of Neanderthal was wiped out by a virus.

"Evolution" does not favor bigger, complex species. Randomly, bigger, complex species evolve, just as do smaller, simpler species. Major catastrophes like the asteroid strike tend to wipe out the big animals and "reset" the distribution of size and complexity. 

At the moment, the majority of biomass on the planet is in bacteria. They are winning.

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