Chapter 270 Students of the Japanese Nobel Prize in Biology!
“The Cambrian explosion of life effectively refutes the statement that ‘the evolution of life is gradual’!!”
Ying Yue summarized what he said before, and then swept his eyes across the audience, smiling and continuing to ask: "Secondly, is evolution a process of development from low-level to high-level?"
"Do you still have any questions about this?"
"Of course from low level to high level!"
There is some commotion in the auditorium!
Ying Yue's question is really a bit idiotic.
It is a well-known fact that life evolves from low level to high level. Is there any doubt about this?
Facing a pair of confused and strange eyes, Ying Yue smiled slightly: "Not necessarily. In fact, the so-called high-level and low-level are inherently ambiguous concepts. Different standards can have different results, and simple standards cannot be used to measure them.
Perhaps we can think that the more successfully a species adapts to its environment, the more advanced it is.
According to the principle of survival of the fittest, if a new species can survive and replace the extinct old species, doesn't it mean that the new species is better able to adapt to the environment than the old species, and is therefore more advanced?
But please don’t forget the premise that the environment has changed.
It is meaningless to compare the adaptability of species in different environments. New species may not be better than old species in old environments.
Sixty-five million years ago, a huge meteorite ten meters in diameter hit the earth, bringing a cold "nuclear winter" that lasted for several years without sunlight.
Many biologists believe that all large plants withered and died as a result. Dinosaurs and large animals ran out of food and became extinct, while mammals survived tenaciously.
One of the factors is that the mammals at that time were only the size of mice or even smaller, and they survived this global famine by eating seeds and roots.
Is it enough to show that mammals are more advanced than dinosaurs? This is obviously a ridiculous statement.
We all know that before the meteorite hit the earth, small size was obviously not an advanced characteristic. Mammals had actually been suppressed by the huge dinosaurs for 100 million years before they waited for this lucky blow!
Therefore, it is meaningless to make low-level and high-level comparisons between biological species that exist at the same time, because the 'evolutionary tree' has countless branches, and it is difficult to say which branch is higher."
Hearing this, Professor Chen and other senior professors from the School of Life nodded in agreement.
"In biology, there is a so-called division between lower organisms and higher organisms. It does not mean that lower organisms are inferior to higher organisms, but that lower organisms appeared earlier than higher organisms and retain more characteristics of their common ancestors. Therefore,
Evolutionarily more 'primitive'!
This is a trouble-free classification, but we cannot think that the more "primitive" in evolution, the less successful the adaptation to the environment.
The truth is just the opposite.
Prokaryotes are more primitive than eukaryotes, but their variety, huge number, and strong adaptability to the environment are beyond the reach of eukaryotes.
In the mammal family, the primates to which humans belong are a fairly primitive branch, but humans are undoubtedly the most successful species among mammals!"
At this point, Ying Yue paused and summarized what he just said: "So, evolution is from low level to high level. This statement is also untenable!
Third, is evolution a process from few to many types?
The answer is also no!
If we compare the millions of species today with the one or few species at the beginning of life, it seems that this conclusion is correct.
But please don’t forget one fact——
In the three billion years from the origin of life to today, new species have been continuously created, and old species have continued to become extinct. In each period, the number of species has increased and sometimes decreased, and it is not a cumulative increase.
For example, in the famous "Cambrian Explosion" 530 million years ago, more animal groups were produced in just 5 million years than today.
The various animal groups after the Cambrian period are just the further evolution of the survivors after this explosion.
Recent research shows that even within a specific group, its types are not constantly expanding. For example, in mammals, during the 200 million years of evolutionary history, their types have increased and sometimes decreased, and have always remained at about 90%.
individual genus.
It can be seen that biological evolution is not only a process from few to many species, but also a process from many species to few. When a mass extinction of species occurs, the latter process is more obvious, and the average mass extinction of species is 26 million
Occurs once a year.
At the same time, I need to remind everyone: Today we humans are wiping out wild animals and plants at an average rate of two species per day, and new species have not been produced. More than 99% of all species that have ever survived have become extinct.
This tragic fact illustrates one point: evolution is a process of trial and error, testing, failing, testing again, and failing again.
It does not go from low-level to high-level, nor from simple to complex, nor from few to many.
Evolution has no direction and no end!
We often draw the evolutionary tree as having a backbone that evolved from single-celled organisms to humans, and place humans at the top of the evolutionary tree as the final product of evolution. This is actually just a subjective ** for us humans!
"
Everyone began to think deeply.
Seeing this, Ying Yue couldn't help but chuckle and said: "After saying so much, I just want to explain one point: in the long history of biological development on the earth, selective evolution does exist, but it is just one of many natural phenomena, and it is not
It’s not the only truth, let alone…”
Everyone listened quietly, and only Ying Yue's words were heard in the auditorium. At this moment, a harsh voice rang out.
"Professor Ying, what you have said so much only shows that the concept of evolution is not accurate. This does not seem to have much to do with the theory of evolution, right?!"
Everyone looked around and saw a gentle female student wearing glasses standing up and speaking calmly.
"is her!"
"Tomoko Mikawa!"
"Isn't this the female top student from Japan?"
"Hahaha, she is a disciple of Japan's Nobel Prize winner in biology, Yoshito Osaka..."
Many people exclaimed when they saw this female student. They really refuted Professor Ying's female student's background.
She is an exchange student at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and her teacher is a famous Japanese biology master and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Biology.
As a disciple of the master, Tomoko Mikawa's knowledge level is undoubtedly very profound. Seeing her jumping out to refute Professor Ying at this moment, many people were unhappy, but they were happy to watch the fun.
"My teacher Yoshito Osaka told me: The credibility of a thing does not depend on how many people accept it or how others tell you, but whether the logic of the matter can convince you!"
Tomoko Mikawa was not loud but argued hard: "Scientific research itself is a process of questioning and answering. The theory of evolution is widely recognized in the scientific community because it provides the most reasonable explanation for the formation of species at present.
As Professor Ying said, if the theory of evolution is not true, then how did so many life forms on the earth come into being, and how did humans appear?
Could it be that it was really made of clay by Nuwa, as your Chinese mythology says?"
"You are right, we humans were indeed created by God!"
