If we evolved, can we devolve?

Question

If we evolved, can we devolve?

Answer 1

Thank you for a straight line that gave me the chance to... be beaten to the punch line by 2 hours by the first person to reply.  No, we really can't, but de-evolution was a hilarious imaginary theory by Devo in the late 1970s.  "Are we not men... we are Devo!" was such a great anthem. :)

Answer 2

Watch the news some nights...we de-evolve on a regular basis!  LOL

Answer 3

Technically 'devolving' is evolving. Evolution is basically natural selection and random mutation, which means if we mutate and become less intelligent (or whatever you think makes us more evolved), we would be evolving, not really devolving.

Answer 4

de-evolve? that's a petty word in science

no we can't because it's already happening

Answer 5

Are we not men, we are Devo!

Answer 6

No i think we will just keep evolving from what we are.

Answer 7

In a sense, we have "devolved" because we have lost many characteristics or traits of our evolutionary ancestors that were essential for their survival. Two examples would be modern teeth and digestive systems. If the world's climate changed suddenly so that the only food sources available were raw, tough plains grasses, very few of us would survive if foraging became the only means to gain nutrients.

Answer 8

just go to america....you can fill in the blanks on that one. roll on the thumbs down

Answer 9

Evolution is the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next; the genes that are passed on to an organism's offspring produce the inherited traits that are the basis of evolution....

cuz of natural selection,which is a process causing heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common in a population we evolve.. adaptations occur through a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of those variants best-suited for their environment

when you're asking if we can reverse the process of evolution...i assume you mean hypothetically can we go back to the original traits instead of the adaptations that we now have....that would in essence be evolution itself lol...

like if an animal adapted to suit the climate....it could adapt again and reverse those traits after a longggg time...if the climate changed...and i guess you might consider that "de-evolving"...but it fits into the category of evolving...

hope that answered the question : )

Answer 10

No.. evolution is change of a population's genes due to natural selection. In other words, as the genes of a species change due to the stresses placed on a population, evolution takes place. Therefor, any change in the genes due to such stresses would be called evolution.

If we were to "devolve" or experience a change in our genes that is more similar to a previous state, it would still be called evolution, because such a change would only happen if it was advantageous to the current environmental factors.

Answer 11

Yes, de-evolution is possible. There would have to be an environmental push where getting dumber brains, more body hair, fewer chromosomes, etc, would provide a large survival advantage than being smart and less hairy.

It is important that no one would be able to adapt to these changes and no one would receive help from competing groups. Then the smarter, less hair ones would die off more quickly than the dumber ones with more body hair.

It's hard to think of advantages of fewer chromosomes, but if nature presented an environment where the ones with missing chromosomes survived better than the ones with full chromosomes, we would have de-evolution.

Some call any change evolution; some de-evolution. It's all semantics. Personally, I think that since we know the path of evolution pretty well, that going back down that path should be called devolution, as a special indication that this is evolution, not in a different direction, but back down the same specific evolutionary path.

Hope that helps.

Answer 12

Yes, and No.

Evolution should NOT be seen as a progressive phenomenon. It is the product of many mechanisms, such as natrual selection and genetic drift. There is no forward or backward. It is a fallacy to think of evolution in this fashion, linages loose and gain traits according to what forms have selective advantages.

But what you may be thinking of is the loss of a a function of trait that used be seen as advantageous at a moment in time and evironment.

For example snakes have hips! Now why would a snake have hips? Well at some point in it evolutionary past an ancestor of the snake actually had legs. Legs might seem like a selective advantage, but selection pressures and possibly other mechanisms favored an animal without legs. The history of this trait isn't entirely erased and bones exist in the snake skeletal system that indicates the reminance of this trait. (Whales have hips too!)

Answer 13

Evolution has no pre-determined end, nor is advancement of species quantifiable in any but a subjective (non-scientific) way.  Evolution simply refers to change of species as described by the theory of evolution.  As such, terms like "devolving" or "devolution" can have no meaningful definition in a scientific context.

Might make a good B movie, though.