Can evolution be non-adaptive?

Question

If it's non-adaptive, then it really isn't evolution is it?

Non-adaptive traits die out, don't they?

Answer 1

Non-adaptivity is PART of the evolution process.  Some creatures evolve to the point that they fit their niche so well, that when a change occurs, they can not adapt and die out.  Evolution still occured, that branch of the tree just died.  

Stop trying to oversimplify every evolutionary concept. It requires thinking to understand, it is not simple.  If you can't understand it, do us a favor and just go read your fairytales.

Answer 2

yes, the fact the evolution came from mutations is very false.  Every mutation that we know of right now in science right now is a bad mutation such as sickel- cell-anemia.  Also it is wrong genetic wise because each cell has its own job.  You can't take a leg cell and make a wing cell out of it.

Read - The Case Against Darwin  Very great book, short and easy to read.  Explains a lot of the false things that darwin said.

Answer 3

Efficient adaptation to the environment is one of the more powerful factors at play in evolution, but there are other factors. The peacock's tail feathers certainly aid him in courtship, but it really is a poor adaptation. The traits will "die out" only if they prevent the animal from competing for food or unable to sexually reproduce.  A shorter tail would help the peacock find food and escape predators more efficiently than other peacocks, but if it prevented him from finding a mate, he is, evolutionarily speaking, SOL.  The mutation just has to be "good enough" to pass along.

Answer 4

Search industrial melanism - that may provide some insight into how natural selection works.

Answer 5

Well, it could still be "evolution," as evolution just means change over time.  However, the idea of "evolution by natural selection" and evolution being driven by reproductive fitness  is not compatible with the idea that evolution is totally non-adaptive.

Answer 6

Not always.

Answer 7

Hi, Small.

Shrewd question. I like how your mind works.

Evolution is simply the name for the observed process of changes in a population over generations. These changes may or may not be particularly useful, or harmful, but are classified as "evolutionary" if they are genetically inheritable.

Whether the traits are required or even useful for the organism's survival is irrelevant. All that matters is that organisms which reach sexual maturity, and reproduce, pass the genes for those traits on to the next generation.

Eye color, for example, is unessential to survival (non-adaptive), but does no harm, either.

~Os

Answer 8

Interesting question.  Do huge peacock tails help them adapt to their environment?  No, if anything they are a hindrance to they're survival.  But they do help the males get laid.  If you expand "enviroment" to include the social/mating scene, then yes, they do help individual males reproduce and so in that regard they are adaptive.  But they definitely hurt their 'fitness' for survival in their external environment.

Or you could look at cave fish.  In the total absence of light, any species of fish living in caves will gradually lose its sight.  Since sight is never used, members of the species with bad eyesight aren't at a disatvantage, so the population's genetics drift away from the genes needed for good vision, until they are eventually totally blind.  Is this a move away from adaptation?  It doesn't do the fish any good to have bad vision, but it doesn't really hurt it either, in this case.

There are some other cases where a gene can either help or hurt depending on the situation.  One answerer mentioned sickle cell.  But the gene that makes one prone to sickle cell also makes them more resistant to malaria.  Is that gene good or bad?  It's hard to say.

Answer 9

only maladaptive traits die out.