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Biological Evolution Theories

Commenters speculate on evolutionary reasons for biological traits, discussing convergent evolution, local optima, quirks, pressures, and concepts like the Red Queen hypothesis.

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Top Contributors

Retric (23) dekhn (18) amelius (16) thaumasiotes (14) JoeAltmaier (14)

Keywords

GP RF TLDR TNG wikipedia.org DNA evolution evolutionary evolve evolved cows characteristic biological animals mutations human

Sample Comments

ajuc • Mar 29, 2023 • View on HN

TLDR convergent evolution is a thing.

jack9 • Apr 22, 2016 • View on HN

Same could be asked about humans. Quirk of evolution is my best guess.

dsign • May 16, 2023 • View on HN

Plot twist: biological evolution works like that too.

amelius • Aug 4, 2017 • View on HN

I wonder why evolution has not exploited this more.

kleer001 • Jan 16, 2023 • View on HN

sorry, it's baked inhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis

hutzlibu • Nov 7, 2021 • View on HN

That allmost sounds like a evolutionary survival strategy.

eddiewithzato • Jul 15, 2024 • View on HN

evolution allowed this to happen, basically it’s evolution all the way down ;)

mrfusion • Jun 9, 2020 • View on HN

I’ve always wondered that too. Maybe evolution is stuck in a local optimum there.

antirez • Feb 22, 2019 • View on HN

So you mean, it did not evolve differently for lack of need?

hellrich • Jan 26, 2011 • View on HN

Evolution can lead to really strange solutions...