Is evolution infinite?

Question

There should only be a finite number of ways an organism can morph into, meaning if time is infinite, at some point, it would be possible for an organism to change back to a previous state it was in, or devolve. Or could it be possible to just keep evolving-- say you start with 1 eye, then you have 2, then 100, 1000, infinite eyeballs?!

Answer 1

Kind of. For example, 2 eyes may not be good in certain situations, and I can safely say that 1000 eyeballs on a mammal would be dangerous. Evolution keeps the most useful traits without necessarily "progressing" numerically. In the far future we may need to walk on all fours again.

Answer 2

Having an answer to the end of time is much like having an answer to the beginning of time. Maybe neither exist..

Answer 3

Any changes to an organism would be due to mutations that either are "bad", wiping out that particular branch and/or the entire species, or are "good", benefitting that branch and/or the entire species (or, in either case, usurping the entire species). Random (i.e., nonsensical) changes would probably not affect the species as a whole (e.g., a person born with purple hair or black teeth or 100 eyes).

If an organism in a given environment has had two eyes over countless millenia, then there is probably no need for a mutation/evolution having more or fewer eyes. Any such mutation would probably be "bad" and, thus, would die off (i.e., extreme mutations such as this example would probably be sterile, and would fail to reproduce; natural selection is also in place here: would YOU date someone with 100 eyes?).  ;)

Of course, nobody can predict the future, especially far off enough to determine the conditions in which more or fewer eyes would be needed, so anything is possible.

Answer 4

Good question.

I suppose that since all life, as we know it, is evolving and our Universe is evolving, there's a good chance that evolution happens everywhere.

I believe the quesation remains whether the Universe is infinite. We know that ours has a beginning somewhere around 14 to 18 billion years ago but will it end? That is the question.

I don't believe that we yet claim to know whether our Universe will continue to expand or, for that matter, if it will be...infinite.

Answer 5

evolution is false...it can be proven

Answer 6

It is finite but it is a really big number

Answer 7

i think it evolve in a circular motion and each complete revolution improves the species.......and those infinite eyeballs merge into one big eyeball,,,,circular evolution

Answer 8

There are not a finite number of ways that an organism can evolve into. Right now, if you looked at the human genome and were to map out every single variation of every active gene you would get a finite number, but even this would not be sufficient since environment largely shapes an organism. Additionally the number of genes is not fixed and is subject to an infinite number of change. It is possible that a future species may resemble a past species more than a present species, but only because that phenotype is adaptive.

Trust me, there is an infinite number of combinations of phenotypes that an exact replica species would NEVER happen.

Answer 9

Humans evolved from a fish like creature (millions of years ago) that happened to have five bony flanges in each fin, giving us our present day fingers and toes.   But many of the basics remain the same to this day.  A multiplication in any organ would only happen if conditions required it for survival.

Answer 10

evolution is junk science. It can't be observed or tested. It goes against the laws of physics.

Does anyone believe that the car they are driving evolved from a model T.

Answer 11

Not infinite, but due to the ~ 3 billion base pairs in a genome, it is a very large number, change one letter pair out of the billions of base pairs & you have a mutation.  Many mutations change nothing, but some do.  All life continously evolves, but a mutation will only become "fixed" in a genome if it offers some large reproductive advantage to a species.  As long as a species is increasing in population the mutations simply add to the diversity of the species... but if some crises situation occurs (called the bottle neck hypothesis) where some are more suited to survive than others, that mutated gene will be passed in large quantities to the offspring.

The virus is probably responsible for most mutations as they insert their DNA into the cell & can  become a permanent part of the genome that is passed down to offspring.

Answer 12

Evolution is driven by natural selection. Organisms with traits that help them survive will live long enough to pass those traits on to their offspring.

Two eyes provided binocular vision, field of focus and depth perception. It's a evolved characteristic that has worked for millions of years and is shared by fish, mammals, birds etc. If extra eyes would have aided survival, they would have developed.

Certain cave dwelling fish do lose their eyes. That would be a condition of "devolution." However, their other senses (touch, taste, hearing) evolved to aid their survival.

There are limits to an organisim evolution. With humans, the development of a larger brain may have reached a practical limit due to the female pelvis. Should the pelvis grow larger to allow bigger brained babies, women would have problems walking. The rise in c-sections and the future possibility to gestation outside the body may resulted in larger brained humans. Conversely the medical skill in saving premature babies may result in babies that need even more time to develop outside of the womb but may be larger brained.

Answer 13

That's a good question. Evolution isn't always more diverse than it is an improvement. Remember the most important influence in evolution is environment. It's environments that dictate the size and shape and function of life. In giving more thought to your "devolve" statement, the only instance of this I can think of is with size. In cases of isolation and food resources, and lack of predators has size decreased. But brain capability has never decreased.

Answer 14

Go look at an alligator, then ask yourself this same thing again.