|
A major tenet of Darwin’s General Theory of evolution is that all modern life forms have common ancestry in the distant past. Another assumption is that all life is descended from early organisms that obtained energy from sunlight. There seems to be a major problem, however: Such a major change in energy source could not have been instantaneous, yet many incremental changes should have decreased fitness for survival of those organisms which lived with an incomplete biological structure that would have become useful only in future generations. If such a transition occurred, there must have been many stages in which the new energy-conversion system was not yet functional. This would mean that an organism that obtained energy from sunlight would have to support a biological structure that was requiring maintenance without giving back any benefit, and this organism would, at the same time, be competing with organisms that did not have this incomplete structure. Thus an evolutionary boundary may have prevented such a major change from taking place. This hypothesis is testable through mathematical simulations of the progress of populations of similar organisms.
The question that these simulations will attempt to answer is “Is it plausible for a large population of organisms, which obtain energy from sunlight and live in a large body of water, to generate, through mutations, an organism that uses an energy source other than sunlight?” This organism must receive a benefit from this secondary energy source at least equal to the energy needed to operate the additional biological structures involved. It’s not essential that the original system (for using sunlight for energy) be abandoned. (A dual energy source is allowed.) The term “target organism” designates the first organism that meets this requirement of a fully functioning new structure.
The method for approaching this question is in simulating the creations and growths of sub-populations of mutant organisms. Each group is made up of organisms that share similar effects of non-harmful mutations.
Before proceeding, my approach to this question needs to be explained. Without claiming any personal beliefs in any particular evolutionary theory, I submit, for the purpose of these simulations, that the following two assumptions be operable and designated as
1) Any trait that positively effects the immediate survivability of an organ- ism will result in the increase of population ratio of the organisms which inherit that trait, compared with the population of a very similar variety which doesn’t possess that trait, when the two groups live in competition.
2) Any trait that negatively effects the immediate survivability of an organ- ism will result in the decline or extinction of all descendents which inherit that trait, when they compete, over a long period of time, with very similar varieties which do not possess that trait.
The reason for including these assumptions is to provide a foundation for a true test of the hypothesis that through survival of the fittest, all animal life is descended from organisms that relied directly on sunlight. The word “extinction”, in the second assump- tion may seem extreme to some. When taken in the context of a world in which the only life forms are simple and very similar organisms, it will be seen that extinction is quite plausible for a group having a trait that decreases its ability to survive amid very similar organisms not having that weakness. The degree to which one trait is negative enough to cause extinction is irrelevant to these examinations as the appli- cation of this assumption is in regard to the accumulation of many weaknesses over many generations. The extinction of a sub-population with accumulated weaknesses is natural in these cases of amplified weaknesses. (See the section on baggage.)
The phrase “immediate survivability” is used to emphasize the obvious point that whatever unique trait an organism possesses is of no value if that organism dies before passing on that trait through reproduction. Some hypotheses of evolution are theoretical constructions based on looking back in time. A unique trait of a living specimen might be analyzed and a hypothesis formed as to its origin in past genera- tions. The purpose of these investigations, on the other hand, is to probe the future potentials of simple organisms in a theoretical environment in which complex forms do not exist. Immediate survivability is more important than a distant future potential.
The choice for this simulation is of an oceanic organism which obtains energy from sunlight. Sunlight is a more consistent energy source than any other, in the long run, in a world in which few, if any, other life forms exist. Simple organisms that rely on chemical sources for energy won’t be considered in this examination, however the principle of evolutionary boundary might apply just as well to such organisms. |
|
Home page (Introduction.) |
|
2 |