Butterfly shows evolution at work
A Pacific island butterfly makes a comeback, in one of the fastest evolutionary changes ever observed.
Ref. https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6896753.stm
We are not the weak link, we are the ultra-strong link that are breaking the other links.
To me the key words are:
Interesting indeed about such a creature having the ability to evolve that rapidly.
When the caterpillar changes into a butterfly does it really turn to goo? I have never researched into it but I always thought it was like a deep hibernation followed by shedding its outer-shell and growing wings like we would grow pubic hair for example.
* Imagine being a caterpillar and eating vegetation, crawling along. Then eventually you feel like climbing a tree. After that, why not make a cocoon? (whats a cocoon? ahh never mind that just make it) Once in this cacoon you fall into a deep sleep were you feel your whole body being transformed. All of a sudden you feel free and want to fly, drink nectar and mate. *
Also, I have recently been wondering about butterfly brains and the brains of frogs. In one moment in life you are eating leaves or vegetation. The next you are eating meat or nectar.
What in the evolutionary cycle allowed such an ability to develope? It would have had to happen over seemingly millions of years.
Could it be this is an entirely new kind of evolution not considered before? A Rapid Evolution Theory ?
I wonder for the butterfly if it is a stage of rebirth? The caterpillar may have the instinct to make a cocoon to die in as a salmon has an instinct to fight raging rapids in reverse direction to lay eggs in a calm stream and die.
While in this cocoon maybe it defeats death and it's energy is reborn into something new hatched from something old? Or maybe caterpillars have something that acts as an egg inside of it that is fertilized by death? And in order for the butterfly to hatch it survives from the nutrients that the caterpillar worked so hard to store within itself.
Same idea with a baby inside a mother, it starts as a fertilized egg but the mother does not feed herself literally to the baby, instead she shares her food with it.
I am going a little way off of the main topic here but it actually pertains to the topic, so bear with me.
When someone dreams they go threw a process. The dream is designed to prepare us for unfamiliar instances and also make us more prepared for the ones we face. Pluss possible future scenarios we have not faced yet.
Scientific studies show animals dream. They also show we take information and play it out in alternate realities and situations to see the most beneficial response.
With this information I wonder if evolution has been altered threw this. Meaning what if not only reality during the waking day alters the creature. But also the dreaming state when they go threw all their information, and "think outside the box" for solutions.
This could explain how such giant leaps where taken in evolution. Bridging gaps between seemingly unbridgeable places.
It is like if you are designing a car, you have the schematics there before you. When they are in the computer you can alter them and run them threw simulated tests. Take that technology then amplify it by 100 and that is what dreams allow. They allow the life form to test out different things and judge which is the best course of action.
Edited: Oliron on 3rd May, 2010 - 2:58am