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Fingies (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (12 children)

Why didn’t nature ever learn to evolve fewer bones?

Like in 100 million years how much worse is the situation going to be?

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  • [+] 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)
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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Tl:dr = Because they haven't. Yet. Maybe. As far as we know.

    I think you've described it quite well. That's just evolutionary biology. Any adaptation requires some kind of pressure behind it.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Not pressure, just absence of negative effects. Pressure might help but is not required. And I use "absence" quite loosey-goosey.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Though it's crazy that there can be such dramatic variation in bone structure and shape (eg humans vs horses vs bats), yet such homogeneity in the number of bones and their connections (arms connect to shoulders, which connect to spine, etc).

    Perhaps the genetic code for the number of bones and their connections, is more resiliant to mutation?

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    Once you've evolved it, one more or less is basically free *. Might fail sooner in old age, but everything after procreation is an afterthought.

    * my aunt has a long neck, 3 vertebras more.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    * my aunt has a long neck, 3 vertebras more.

    Apparently it's really rare for mammals to evolve that without getting somthing else that's really nasty like cancer. There was a recent video about it on SciShow or HanksChannel

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Evolution is not an intentional process. It's just statistics compounding over time. Simplified example: By random chance this bird grew a 5% longer beak than its peers, which means it can catch 5% more food and raise 5% more chicks than the others. If its descendants have similar success, over time it means that their long-beak trait will become more and more prevalent in the population, and projected over thousands of years, the whole species will end up having this long-beak trait, simply because those who had it, had more kids grow to reproductive age than those who didn't.

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