[meteorite-list] RE: Mars Meteorite ... Signs Of Life-Magnetite and Orientation

From: Michael Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:44 2004
Message-ID: <3AC45705.245F_at_home.com>

E.L. Jones wrote:
> Parsimoniously..... On Earth I accept the presence of magnetite crystals in many species--we have assumed they are for orientation... On Mars, however, what was the evolutionary incentive for a bacterium to develop a magneticly based mechanism for navigation/ orientation ? Why evolve a mechanism for detecting a magnetic field where one scarcely exists?
> Elton Jones
> _______________________________________________
Hi Elton & all,
        As an instructor in Physical Anthropology, the issue of evolution is
continually at play for me. You should know that many evolutionary
theorists (myself included) belive MUCH of what "evolves" is not
nessessarily BECAUSE it was "adaptive" - but simply because certain
traits resulting from "random" mutations were NOT MALADAPTIVE
and were "dominant" traits.
        Steven J. Gould makes reference to the randomness of evolution a
good deal, but particularly in his popular book, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
(inspired by the movie starring Jimmy Stuart).
        So, if his thinking (and the thinking of many other paleontologists)
is acurate, it DIDN'T nessessarily have an adaptive aspect - just lack a
maladaptive aspect.
        Best wishes, Michael
PS: When I say "evolutionary theorists" I do NOT mean to imply, in any
way, that evolution, itself, is a theory. Quite the contrary, it is a
VERY
WELL ESTABLISHED, OBSERVABLE PHENOMENON - however, HOW many
of the evolutionary forces are caried out IS theoretical. Certainly,
Chuck's "Servival of the fittest" and "Natural selection" ARE at play -
but
MANY other elements will be very dificult to establish without question,
due to the extraordinary intervals of time involved in most the evidence
available.
        Very interesting research IS conducted on very quickly reproducing
bacteria, etc. - as well as the readily observable adaptive responses of
insects to poisons, and many diseases are quite fascinating in their
manifestations of microevolutionary responses to treatment and a
changing world.

--
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Received on Fri 30 Mar 2001 04:51:02 AM PST