At all levels, living systems are in constant activity much of which is in preparation for the future. The reproductive system of a sexually mature woman goes through changes in preparation for the pregnancy that might come about. Multicellular life could not have come about without the prior colonization of the earth by single celled organisms.
The activity and behaviour of groups of organisms have a large influence on the subsequent forms they adopt. Likewise the behaviour of cells and how they manipulate their internal structures including genomes, determine the roles they play within their environment.
Ancestral relationships:
The evolving whole:
The tree of life
So 150 years after the publication of Darwin’s revolutionary book, modern genetics has confirmed its fundamental truth – all life is related. And it enables us to construct with confidence the complex tree that represents the history of life.
The individual person:
All cells in a person’s body are descendants of two cells, the mother’s egg and the father’s sperm. After the egg and sperm join together (fertilization), the fertilized egg is just a single cell. This cell, the zygote, divides many times, and as it divides, the descendant cells develop different characteristics and functions.</blockquote>
Growth and differentiation:
The evolving whole:
It began in the sea, some 3,000 million years ago. Complex chemical molecules began to clump together to form microscopic blobs: cells. These were the seeds from which the tree of life developed. They were able to split, replicating themselves as bacteria do and as time passed they diversified into different groups. Some remained attached to one another so that they formed chains – we know them today as algae. Others formed hollow balls which collapsed upon themselves creating a body with an internal cavity. They were the first multi-celled organisms – sponges are their direct descendents.
The individual person:
In mammals, the blastula forms the blastocyst in the next stage of development. Here the cells in the blastula arrange themselves in two layers, the inner cell mass, and an outer layer called the trophoblast. The inner cell mass is also known as the embryoblast and this mass of cells will go on to form the embryo. At this stage of development, the inner cell mass consists of embryonic stem cells that will differentiate into the different cell types needed by the organism.
Aquatic life:
The evolving whole:
As more variations appeared, the tree of life grew and became more diverse. Some organisms became more mobile and developed a mouth that opened into a gut. Others had bodies stiffened by an internal rod. They understandably developed sense organs around their front end.
A related group had bodies that were divided into segments with little projections on either side that helped them to move around on the sea floor. Some of these segmented creatures developed hard protective skins which gave their bodies some rigidity. So now the seas were filled with a great variety of animals.
The individual person:
Amniotic fluid surrounds the embryo and fetus during development and has a myriad of functions
Terrestrial life:
The evolving Whole:
And then around 450 million years ago, some of these armoured creatures crawled up, out of the water and ventured on to land.</a> And here, the tree of life branched into a multitude of different species that exploited this new environment in all kinds of ways
One group of them developed elongated flaps on their backs which over many generations eventually developed into wings. The insects had arrived. Life moved into the air and diversified into myriad forms. Meanwhile, back in the seas, those creatures with the stiffening rod in their bodies had strengthened it by encasing it in bone. They increased in size and grew skulls. They grew fins, equipped with muscles that enabled them to swim with speed and power. So fish now dominated the waters of the world.
One group of them developed the ability to gulp air from the water surface.</a>
The individual person:
When a baby is birthed down, Valeriana sees the baby stretch out its arms, which in turn expands its lungs for those first few breaths. “The Moro reflex makes such sense!” she adds, referring to the “startle reflex” where an infant throws open its arms (V. Pasqua-Masback, personal communication, January 19, 2010). Additionally, this pause is an important time for the placental transfusion, the return of the volume of blood that has backed up into the cord and placenta with the squeeze through the birth canal, a function that also aids in the transition to lung breathing.
Life’s transitions have been prepared well in advance. Tetrapods could only colonize the land if the atmosphere was suitable for breathing, they possessed a suitable respiratory system, and their bodies were able to cope with the additional gravitational forces. Functioning on land involves a different set of challenges from those brought about by a purely aquatic existence.
Evolutionary trajectories are constrained by their history. The tetrapod body form is constrained by the form taken in its primal beginnings. Notwithstanding these limitations in the paths available, this has subsequently given rise to a multitude of forms, many of them being extremely specialized. Due to the early limitations we never see directions taken that might has seemed possible. Such directions as tetrapods growing extra limbs, lung breathing animals reverting to breathing under water, or precocious primates with the ability to fend for themselves immediately after birth.
Another feature that the evolutionary trajectory allows for is the extremely complex central nervous system.. The actions of of organisms leading to the production of substances used to build up nervous systems have very deep origins.
Rational thought, organs necessary to communicate through spoken language, manual dexterity, inventiveness; our creative abilities, both physical and mental are what they are because early earthly life prepared the way. Evolutionary paths could have taken many different directions, which while being very successful at surviving and reproducing, would have precluded the above abilities.
Future? What future? With the World Homicide Organization to take the lead? Maybe DNA_sock should be promoted to promote big pharmaceutical industry?
Who cares who dies on the way to “success”? Sh’’t happens to the unfortunate…
Ancient texts are awash with predictions of future events which, for us, will soon be present realities. Kronos eats his children. Nothing in this world can escape the destruction that time will bring about.
For instance,
Matthew 24:6-8:
and from the Bhagavad Gita:
Evolution has led to the appearance of the ‘I’, the human ego, which is turning us from creatures into creators. And the Ukraine war demonstrates the destructive power of our creations. And this is just the beginning. Anyone who believes the human ego is just an incidental evolutionary byproduct should look closely at its present power of destruction which is only going to increase in the future.
CharlieM,
Are telling me you understand the conflict in Ukraine? Even Putin doesn’t really get it but you do?
I have to admit. I like you… so whatever you say I will always read.. You are not a stupid guy… 🙂
What I understand is that Ukraine is a recognizably sovereign country. No other country has the right to invade it by force, nor to attempt to influence its system of governance.
Like Trump, Putin is only interested in acquiring as much personal power and wealth as he can get his hands on. He is not interested in furthering the welfare of his own people let alone the welfare of Ukrainian civilians. You do not liberate people by turning their settlements into rubble filled wastelands.
He made a massive miscalculation when he presumed he could repeat in Ukraine what he was able to do in Chechnya. Nobody in his inner circle had the courage to explain to him the real situation within his military machine and industrial efficiency which had been degraded by corruption and selfishness of the elite. But since he started this act of aggressive barbarism he has no other option but to push on. Taking any other course of action will finish him off and losing what he has accumulated terrifies him.
We know from history that the likes of him cannot be appeased.
Thanks for the compliment. I may not be stupid, but I’d say I’m not far from average intelligence, and there are many subjects in which I’m fairly ignorant.
True enough. But so what? By which I mean, what point do you think you’re making here?
The human mind is capable of creative thinking which, because of our physical attributes, can be communicated to others. Through the power of will and using our manipulative skills this inventiveness can be turned into physical reality.
The modern world is being shaped by human thinking. And this state of affairs has been in preparation, slowly maturing, from the beginning of earthly life. We have been given this power. Unfortunately we haven’t been given the wisdom to harness it for good.
It’s been left up to us to gain this wisdom through our own effort, but we’re not making a very good job of it so far. We are like wayward, rebellious teenagers who are abusing their new found freedom.
A few examples of the early preparation of systems which have led to present day humans having such advanced mental and manual dexterity.
Neurons and neuronal tissue:
Early evolution of neurons by William B. Kristan Jr.
further:
Central nervous system:
Fossil reveals earliest known central nervous system of an animal. Posted by Shireen Gonzaga, October 23, 2013.
Pentadactyl limb:
Tetrapod Limbs
How a 380-Million-Year-Old Fish Gave Us Fingers: A remarkable fossil reveals that the digits in our hands evolved before vertebrates emerged from the water to colonize land by John A. Long & Richard Cloutier
See image below
CharlieM,
You are confusing ‘preparation’ of an organism for the course of its future life, and ‘preparation’ of an organism for the future of life on earth. This happened in your very first paragraph.
The first form is demonstrable, the 2nd doesnt even make sense.
The form of the appendages in early lobed finned fish prepares the way for terrestrial tetrapod support and locomotion. The limbs of horses, crocodiles, birds, primates, beavers, otters, frogs, etc., were all fashioned from the same general form.
A few of these animal types retained enough flexibility in the form of the limbs so that they could develop into structures capable of manipulating objects. Others such as the horse were denied further progress in that regard. Any return to such flexibility in horses would require so many concurrent bodily changes as to make it practically impossible.
We witness creativity in primates, rodents and birds that we don’t see in horses. Creativity such as nest building and the like. And primates can be really smart in the way they use whatever is to hand
The combination of advanced central nervous systems and superior manipulative skills are attributes which give their possessor by far the most creativity amongst all of the forms of life on earth. This is what turns creatures into rational creators.
This is interesting.
Ancient viruses emerge as unexpected heroes in vertebrate brain evolution
And in itself the evolution of the articulated jaw led to the appearance of the mammalian jaw which is a defining feature of the group. A study of the changes required and all that is entailed in the development of this type of jaw from the reptilian jaw is very telling.
At the same time the auditory system became isolated from the jaw structure allowing for more acute hearing, and it opened up the potential for animals to exploit a much wider range of food sources.
Mastication allowed for the process of digestion to begin before the food was even swallowed.
And of course this novel jaw arrangement became a very important feature in the ability of human speech. With our advanced nervous system and senses we were able to acquire spoken language and have auditory systems which could discern the subtleties of their sounds impinging on our ear drums.
More of the same:
Accompanying image below.