Quote:
Originally Posted by Kazikli Bey
That's not what i am saying, though i agree with what you just said. What i am arguing though is that the genes do not change in order to adapt, they have to have changed before we started eating the different foods. Sorry, i may not have worded it clearly before.
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Well, I would not completely agree. The point is that in the fields of genetics we currently are on the way of finding out mechanisms that control mutation of the genetic code in a certain way, at least in higher organisms (animals or plants for example). The Introns seem to play a certain role here for example to name one example. Introns have been called DNA-Junk for a long time, junk without a function or sense. It increasingly looks like this might have been a wrong evaluation.
While Introns really dont seem to be much of a benefit for the individual itself, they seem to be of a worth when it comes to the recombination of DNA and also when it comes to mutation. I think the research is still in progress on this issue, but when I remember correctly its also favoring those mutations that make at least in the very basic genetic vocabulary sense.
The point is, in the scientific community the idea is rising that evolution is not a pure random process, but that its a combination out of random and guiding systems that increase the likability of positive mutation, or maybe conserve important genetic information while allowing more often mutation in other regions where it is more promising. Even though there is still much speculation on this, one should be principally open for those concepts.
After all, evolution do not favor the fittest individual but the fittest species, and species who develop methods to improve their own evolutionary score have an advantage. Species which do not trust on pure mutation random alone have an advantage.
Back to your very point again...
The genes don't have to change before habits change, for example if vegetable only eating humans discover meat as rare dish in times of food shortage for example and accept paying the price for bad efficiency in eating and digesting it, you will easily realise how an evolutionary pressure possibly could build up, which favors those who are better adapted to eat meat, beneath plants as major food source.
Of course thats just a guess from my side, but thats a way evolution can work for sure. The point is species do not always do what they can do best, but often are flexible and do also things they are not specialized towards if it is opportune even if its inefficient.