Tuesday, April 14, 2009
"Preserve the old, but know the new"
Chapter four starts out with a Chinese proverb, "Preserve the old, but know the new." Why is it important to know and study our past, and how does studying our ancestors help us attain a deeper understanding ourselves? This concept not only applies to history, but it also applies to biology! What does studying the old species reveal about the new evolved species?
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History repeats itself, and as chapter 6 states, evolution repeats itself. And if we fail to learn from the past, (which we usually do), we will probably end up repeating the same mistakes (which we also do).But this also doesn't mean just to learn from their mistakes, but also what they did right and how we can mirror our ancestors ways to our own modern day lives. Many arguments could be said that many cultures of the old ancient empires are better and at times more civilized than ours today. Learning from our ancestors directly relates the process of evolution, for if we know what our ancestors did right to survive and reproduce, we too can mirror their actions so we know the best ways to survive and reproduce. In basic terms, by learning from the past we could actually progress = and head into the future.
ReplyDeleteStudying old species could also show you how a species evolved and what parts changed, and which remained the same. By examining such things your knowledge of the subject grows, and you have more information on the subject you can put it to better use. Realistically, there is no such thing as a theory of evolution without studying the speices of the past...
In biological terms, this is important in proving wrong those "pro-intelligent design" supporters. Once we garner enough information on the theory of evolution to where it becomes a law, we can finally shut those fundamentalists up for good. Which results in a victory for biologists all over the world. Oh and of course the whole knowledge thing is also helpful to better our understanding of evolution and its various aspects.
It is through our ancestors that we have developed into the beings that we are today. Studying not only our past, but also the past of other organisms, provides insight into the various means by which different organisms have survived. By looking at the different survival techniques, we can see what mutations, or anomaly's, or genetic defects....etc.etc. have proven to be either advantageous to the organism or disadvantageous. Through this, we can learn how first of all the environments that our ancestors had to live in and how our ancestors had to cope with those environments. If by chance that there is a type of distortion between species, like the missing link from primates to humans, then we can also factor in our prior knowledge of ancestors to try and reach conclusions. Basically, studying old species reveals how the new species is even able to exist.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous two quotes and the idea that looking back allows us to gain a better understanding about how we evolved and what factors led to the evolution. On page 119, Carroll talks about fossil genes and how "these broken pieces of yesterday's code reflect the adaptations of species". By looking back into the past at these fossil genes, we have actual proof of past species and are able to learn a lot about how they used to live. By studying the differences between the past and the present, we might be able to notice a trend and be able to predict evolutions of the future.
ReplyDeleteBy "preserving the old and knowing the new", Darwin was able to come up with his theory of evolution. If the old has disappeared, we would have never come to the recognition that organisms/species change over time due to natural selection in their changing environments.
Also by looking at the past, we can prevent the same mistakes from happening again because as stated earlier, "evolution repeats itself" (ch. 6).
What has been said above is true and are all valid points. It has been proven that evolution repeats itself. The repetition of evolution occurs when the same selective pressures arise. Natural selection will then select for the trait that will best help the organism survive and reproduce for the time being. Meaning that evolution and natural selection can not see the future and can only act upon the current conditions an organism is living in.
ReplyDeleteLet’s say that we learn about the evolutionary history and then a situation arises that has occurred in the past. How could a person prevent the same solution from being selected as the solution? What can people do with this information and how is it beneficial?
I love this question. It examines the crux of the academic discipline of biology. We study the past, older extinct/ less evolved organisms, in order to understand the present. The knoweldge we gain from understanding the structures (and therefore the functions) of older/ less evolved/ simpler organisms are used as a jumping point from which we can trace the evolution of a particular organ in an organism, e.g. the eye. We examined the simpler eyes in planaria in order to see exactly how light sensitive cells operate. We use this knowledge to understand how more complex human eyes function. It is from this knowledge of the extant/ complex organs and organism that we can help to cure diseases and increase the quality of life of human beings.
ReplyDeleteThe past five comments have all said very similar things. Firstly, evolution repeats itself and by studying the DNA of the past and the evolution of past species, then we can predict what may happen in the future. I'm going to go a little ways off the question, but still very much related. By studying the past, we can learn what the Earth was like at the time of that certain species. For example, why did dinosaurs go extinct? Domain Archaea are very much looked at because they provide a means of seeing what the world was like billions of years ago. We know from simply studying these ancient creatures that still exist today in extreme conditions (halophiles, thermophiles, etc.) that the early Earth had deep-sea vents, little oxygen available, and hot conditions. Researchers also use ancient species to determine how the Earth was formed and how life emerged. There is much debate about how the Earth was formed- the most common theory being the "Big bang theory". According to a Science Daily report, that the majority of the water on earth as well as iron-loving elements were brought to earth due to collisions with ice comets and meteorites. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501093513.htm)
ReplyDeleteThe importance of learning from the past is ever present in all areas of study, biology just being one of many. The importance of studying evolution in many so called "ancestral" species is that we can learn more about the mechanisms of natural selection in a specific environment. For example, by discovering that ancestral reptiles developed keratin-based scales to avoid dessication, we can learn that a major selective pressure of terrestrial environments is water loss. Therefore, by using the reptilian model as a guide, we can conclude that in order to adapt to terrestrial niches, a species must evolve a barrier that protects from dessication. This is just one of thousands of examples that show us exactly what aspects of natural selection are at work. Once we know what forces of natural selection are defining the process of evolution, we can then hypothesize what course evolution will take in the future based on similar these selective pressures.
ReplyDelete