Do advantageous mutations occur frequent enough to mathematically support evolution?

Question

It is a well known anthropological fact that the human population was below 1 million for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years until very recently.

For natural selection to occur we need mutations (or is there an alternative theory to mutations that is still accepted?).

I just can't see there being enough mutations on a regular basis that are advantageous (the EXTREMELY rare mutations we see today are rarely advantageous and "freaks of nature").

So can anyone inform me or clear up my way of thinking:

Do advantageous mutations occur frequent enough to mathematically support evolution?

Answer 1

Successful (Advantageous) mutations occur at the rate of 0.1% of the time...

DNA replication is like a copy machine that doesn't always work perfectly, and when it makes an error, if these errors are in some way attractive during mate selection, give it a few thousand generations, then you have a new species, or at least sub-species...

An example is human Blood Type. Once humans were all the same BT. Then our diets changed. We began to eat grains and animal milk-products. Successful mutations occurred, and within 10,000 years we gained three new Blood Types. So now, there are 4 human BT's...

Answer 2

Most mutations are benign, some are deterimental, and few are advantageous.

But one single advantageous mutation can have a very big effect.

But genetics can be complicated, and sometimes it isn't a matter of mutations, but a matter of genes turning on and off at certain times.

Answer 3

Yes..it's a classic paradox....

If beneficial mutations occurred once every million souls...as an example only....and there were 1 million souls...that is only 1 beneficial mutation per generation...for that1 mutation to be 'spread' to all the living souls would take at least 20 generations...2^20 power is a bit over 1 million....25 years or so to a generation...500 years...and that is just 1 single beneficial mutation.

But if it is a 1 in a million chance...I was born in 1958...world population 2.95 billion...

Today there is 6.6 billion...that is 3.7 billion more....

IF.....1 in a million is the standard..that should be 3700 beneficial mutations in my lifetime alone....uhh...where are they?

so it must be less frequent..but then there isn't enough time in mans history..more frequent...where are they...a paradox.

Answer 4

You would be surprised with the amount of mutation variation natural selection can work with within populations. The beneficial mutation rate is low, but progeny produced in a population with the environmental pressure can be " noticed " by natural selection at a low rate. 1%

Answer 5

Yes - of course advantageous mutations occur frequently enough.

The mutations that matter to evolution are mutations to genes - there is usually no outward (phenotypic) evidence; the freaks of nature are usually not a result of gene mutation but developmental errors creating somatic mutations. I can see that you don't understand this whole process so I don't think any direct citations will help, you need some background in basic biology. Try these:

http://druniverse.wsu.edu/QandA.asp?ques...

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/ev...

http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/synt...

And BTW, in addition to human population levels it's also a well known anthropological fact that humans evolved from ape-like ancestors through descent with modification. You cannot simultaneously accept and reject whatever you like or dislike about science and still hope to be credible.