WEBVTT - What is parallel evolution? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.400 from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.600 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.800 Charles W. Chuck Bryant. I am here, sir, and that 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.760 makes this stuff you should know. Indeed, the Friday versions 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.600 been while on the Friday, it is Friday, isn't it? 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.200 Are we shouting out to Kiva? First thing? I think 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.720 we definitely should, dudes and do debts. We have surpassed 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.160 half a million bucks as a team in micro loans 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.479 to Kiva dot org. And that was our goal was 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.879 to hit it in May, and darn it all if 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.879 we didn't do it. We totally did it, and we 0:00:51.920 --> 0:01:01.360 started our team October ten, two nine, and but by 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.240 the next October we'd already passed our two fifty dollar goal, 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.120 and then we wanted to get to five hundred thousand 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.800 in May. I didn't think it was possible. We totally did. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.360 It's possible because of people like Glenn and Sonja who 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.960 helm the team for us. There are de facto captains. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.479 It's because of people like Blake this guy who came 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:26.280 in and UM basically put sixteen lemons I think on 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.560 his credit card because he said he was sick of 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.000 us being so close to half a million dollars but 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.200 not quite there. Um. And everybody who's a member on 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.520 our team who's contributed anything, well at least five bucks. Yeah, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.440 we're number three on all of Cuba in the number 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.600 of team members, ahead of Team Obama in Australia and Europe. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.280 We're just so proud of you. We're very proud of everybody, 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.360 and it's just cool. And I guess Glenn and Sonia 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.880 will probably help us figure out the next goal, which 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.760 I guess will be a million bucks. I would say 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.040 we I'd say a million why not, let's do it. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.480 Might take a year from now, but I ain't going anywhere. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.280 We'll find out. Let's do it, okay, So our goal 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.079 now is to lend a million dollars on Cuba through 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.720 our stuff. You should know team Let's go, guys, all right, 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.400 way to go. Everybody eat a cupcake, that's right, a 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:17.840 good one too. And if you want to know about 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:19.880 CIVA and you don't know about our team, you can 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.360 find that at k I D A dot org slash 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:28.040 team or is it teams team team slash stuff. You 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.280 should know you can join up at the team and 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.519 just make one little lousy loan and you can get 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:34.960 your money back and then you can pull it out 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.200 if you want, but you're probably gonna want to reinvest it, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.240 which is kind of cool. And you know what before 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.800 you do, before you sign up um, or if you 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.360 just recently signed up, you should read our two part 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.760 blog post on CIVA and how we feel about Cuba 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.360 because it's not a perfect system. Um and after a 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.480 while everyone inevitably runs up against the flaws and it 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.160 and talks about quitting and all that and um, so 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.280 we wrote a couple of posts on it so you 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.959 could sort whis why we land at s Y s 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.520 k um and uh, that will bring it up on 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.240 the blogs, right yeah, And just you know, what I've 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.240 learned is just like regular loans, micro loans are no different. 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.080 There are people that get in trouble and should not 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.520 have borrowed what they borrowed. And it's even sadder I 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.440 think that people borrow you know, six hundred bucks and 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.600 can't for that, and so there are there are some downsides, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:25.640 but we found not only that there are also tons 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.520 of predators out there lending to people at horrible rates. 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.240 But we believe in Kiva and we found that there 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.040 are many, many more positive associations. So agreed, Moving on, 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.920 Moving on, dude, um So also probably wouldn't hurt to 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.560 go listen to our micro Lending How micro Lending Works 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.800 podcasts where we first discovered Cuba. That's right, um So, Chuck, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.280 We're going to talk about something that has absolutely nothing 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.400 to do with CIVA as far as I know. Okay, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:57.119 I think you're right. Um let's talk first about Australia. Uh, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:02.520 Australia is this awesome little all natural laboratory, a giant 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.200 Petrie dish if you will. Just from childhood, I've always 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.080 been amazed that it's a country and a continent. My 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.720 hats always gone off to Australia. So to all of 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:16.440 our peeps down in Australia, Chuck, take off your hand. Okay, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.920 there you get You're supposed to say, ohit oit oi, yes, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.400 just pretend I just did. Um and Uh. The reason 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.760 being is because at one point the the continents all 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.520 formed a super continent, Pangaea, some of the other continents. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.280 Um kind of stuck together a little more. Australia went 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.279 off by itself, as Australians do. It went off to 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.320 do its own thing, that's right. And um, there were 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.640 animals in existence about sixty million years ago when it 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.279 broke off. Um that we're living on Australia. Yeah. I 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.360 pictured the little crack forming and then separating and literally 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:55.039 animals looking at their little species brethren going by. That's 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.279 a that's a really good way to look at it too, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.520 because it's not like these cracks happened like you know 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.440 this this species lives over here and this species lives 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.200 over there, right, I mean that's pretty much exactly how 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.360 it happened. I mean not that quickly, maybe using time 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:16.000 and last photography, but um, essentially that gave that gave 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:22.120 rise to related species evolving in in completely different parts 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.800 of the world, that's right. So Australia gave us some 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:31.320 freak shows like koala, bears, kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian devils that 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.479 are really different than other animals and other parts of 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.000 the world exactly. Um, but it also gave us a 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:42.159 little something called the flying falangists. I've never heard of this, Okay, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.760 the flying falangists looks it's a it's a rodent, has 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.800 a tail that has a tiny head just covered in fur. 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.760 It'll give you some sort of pestilent disease if you 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.000 eat it raw. Yeah. Um. But it also has this 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:02.760 weird little um bit of in that were tracks, except 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.120 when it's jumping from tree to tree, it spreads its 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.480 arms and legs out yep, spread eagle, and this flap 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.640 of skin in between its arm and say it's ribs 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.960 and then its legs and it's so say buttocks. This 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.640 skin flaps out to allow it to glide. It's like 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.600 it's like those flying dudes that you see now, the 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.760 skydivers that they basically wear a little flying suits. Yeah, 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.480 wingsuit yeah, wings Those things are awesome. It's pretty cool, 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.960 um and way dangerous. So this is like the original. 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:37.720 This is the o G of that. Yeah. I think 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.480 it was based on that flying flanges. It sounds like, again, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.800 a total freak show until you remember, oh yeah, North 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.800 America has flying squirrels that are the exact same thing. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:48.560 And I had a pet one. I think I mentioned 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.120 that before you did, didn't you. Okay, So if you 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.400 go back far enough on the family tree, you're going 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.640 to find that both of these animals ancestors were living 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.119 on Australia and elsewhere in the world at the time. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.600 That's right. Okay, so when they when they split off, 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:09.480 when Australia broke off, um, this this animal's habitat was disrupted, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.000 and so you had two members of the same species 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.800 living on different parts of the world but evolving completely differently. Right. 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.520 So they've gotten to the point now where the flying 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.200 squirrel and the flying flanges they're not the same animal. 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:27.040 They're different species because they can't engage in successful reproduction 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:32.560 any longer. But they still both evolved independently these flaps, 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:37.120 which are just totally odd. That's what's called parallel evolution, right, 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.920 That's right. And um, the flying flanges and flying squirrel 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.360 are far from the only species that are no longer related, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.280 that are no longer the same species that have evolved similarly, 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.600 which poses a really big question for biology and evolution. 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.920 How is this happening? It's right. Well, parallel evolution um. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.280 Further defined is when they're related species that have been split. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.120 When two different species share these traits, it's morphological similarity 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.520 kind of neat, huh. And when two completely unrelated species 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:15.120 develop this morphological similarity. It's called convergent evolution. And it's 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.080 kind of hard to tell because we don't know exactly 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.960 how things were millions of years ago. When sure exactly 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.720 which one of these uh we're similar back then? But 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.360 we do know in like the case of the squirrel 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:31.480 in the Philanger Philanger, Yeah plane filangists, Philanger, I've been 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.599 saying philangists, Philanger. Yeah, it's a Philanger, the flying Philanger. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:40.720 What they should is called a squirrel. M. Well, that 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.120 that that occurred to me. Maybe maybe there isn't such 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.360 a thing as parallel evolution. Maybe it's all humans. We're 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:49.200 just not calling everything the same thing. It's our naming convention. 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.839 There's problem solved. So one of the reason and it's 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.000 pretty simple actually, and it makes a lot of sense 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.600 that parallel evolution can occur is that, um, when you 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:03.360 have a similar environment with two species, uh, population pressure 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.000 is gonna lead to similar traits, Like we gotta survive, 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.480 So if we live in a similar environment, then we're 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.640 probably gonna evolve similarly. Like if it's really cold, we're 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:18.040 probably gonna have thick fur as you know, different species. Um, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.160 it's pretty basic. Another really good example I think that 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.679 was used with teeth, Yes right, yeah, I know that 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.040 it's jumping around a little bit, but that's all right. 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.880 Teeth things we take for granted, they're so ubiquitous. Sharp teeth. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.520 Sharp teeth are found in all carnivores. And the reason 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.880 why is because it's a really good trait. Yeah right, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.480 because we can dig into meat. Same thing though, although 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.360 I can't with my stupid bum tooth. I'm I'm devolving 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.319 someday again through technology, I hope. So. So, what you're 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:53.199 talking about, Chuck is Um with natural selection is that basically, 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.480 if you imagine dropping an animal into a an environment, 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.480 so a jungle, right, there are parts of it that 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.560 are going to allow it to thrive. There are things 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.720 that are going to make it less likely to thrive. 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.479 The things that make it likelier to thrive, or the 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.480 the traits that are going to get passed along from 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.120 generation to generation. As long as they hang along, hang 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.280 on long enough to to survive through the reproduction process, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.920 then it gets ingrained and boom, you've got yourself a 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:27.640 trade well by nature, the the traits that allow it 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.040 to hang on long enough to reproduce are going to 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.760 be most successful traits because with reproduction, those are the 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.600 ones that are going to get passed around the most frequently, 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.319 and then eventually the one the animals that had more 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.800 of the traits that didn't allow it to thrive are 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.280 gonna die out. They're not going to reproduce. So on 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.240 a long enough time scale, this reproduction will lead to 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.840 um higher frequency of traits that make an animal fit 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.280 for its environment. Right, Like the guerrilla, for instance, used 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:01.000 to have a large ale with a pin wheel on 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.760 the end of it, but it was really you know, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:05.880 I didn't really do much for him, so over time 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.640 it just kind of went away. Right. That's not true, though, 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.480 is it? No, it's not true. What do you mean? 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.080 Is it all right? It was making sure? Um? So 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.440 these changes though, these traits, right, they just kind of 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.880 seemed to pop up here there, if you're in our 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.640 current understanding of genetics, same nineteen eighties understanding of genetics, 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.920 they just kind of pop up out of nowhere. Um. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.920 But chuck, if I may digress for a second, please, 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.200 have we ever explained what came first the chicken or 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.079 the egg. Yeah, it's been a while though it has, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.040 but we have already yeah, but it's been a while. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.560 I think it deserves a recap okay, because you actually 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.440 know the answer, Yes, I do. I can say that 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.760 the egg came first because the genetic mutation that gives 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.160 rise to new species, to new animals occurs UH in 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.800 the zygotic stage of development. Right. So that means a 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.880 non chicken and a non chicken got together and created 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.600 as I got that had a mutation that eventually turned 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.000 it into a chicken. Its jeans were expressed to be 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.480 a chicken. To the egg came first. The egg came 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.320 before the chicken. Eventually the egg hatched and you had 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.440 the first chicken. But the egg came first, all right, Um. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.559 But the point of me saying that is that the 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:28.200 mutations that appear, these traits that change over time or 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.840 show up that make an animal more fit for its environment, 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:37.160 happened in the reproductive level of zygote, That's right. And 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.720 the accumulation of those traits, the beneficial traits that make 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:43.959 it able to survive UH in a certain place, like 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.800 a polar bear in the cold, is called an ecological niche. 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.440 Niche and some people say, we talked about the polar 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.160 bear before um separating from the Brown Bear and the 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.040 Black Bear and Evolution in Isolation, which was kind of 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.280 a companion podcast of this one. Did you write that one, Yeah, 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:01.720 I wrote that one. I didn't write this one that 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.640 this was the grabster. Yeah, that's right, of course. So 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:09.319 that's an ecological niche and um animals, like we mentioned 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.200 the polar bear, that have adapted to live in a 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:12.800 cold area. You throw a polar bear out in the 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:17.319 savannah of Africa and it's not gonna do too well, right, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.440 which brings up another point I think that is there's 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.720 a lesson in all of this what we're talking about, 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.520 especially with ecological niches. We especially us being humans at 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.439 the top of the food chain and the smartest things 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.920 ever since slight spread um or prairie dogs go ahead, okay, 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.800 tend to look at evolution as um basically a ladder 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.960 and we're at the top, baby, right, that's not the 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.480 case an ecological niches point that point that out. If 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.439 you if humans okay, great example, if you take a 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:52.880 human and put it at the bottom of the Marianna trench, 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.960 it's not going to thrive, It's going to drown or 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.760 its heads going to explode. We're not suited for it. 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.280 So we're not evolved. We're not at the top of evolution. 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.640 If evolution were a ladder and we were at the top, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.280 we'd be suited for any environment. We're not at a 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.559 good point. So, as a guy named Matt Ridley points 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.120 out in a book called The Red Queen, Sex and 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.680 the Evolution of Human Nature, um that evolution is not 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:22.320 a ladder, it is a treadmill. Yeah. No, animals necessarily 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.880 better than another more highly evolved. It has to do 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:30.760 with adapting to your local environment. That's one of the 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.160 processes of parallel evolution. Makes sense. We adapt to our 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.760 local environment or our ecological niche. That's right. That's a 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:41.640 very good point. And the reason we're pointing out ecological 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.600 niche to begin with is because animals are I'm sorry 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:51.200 organisms period that have parallel or convergent evolution are usually 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.560 or more likely to have a similar ecological niche. It's 0:14:55.600 --> 0:15:00.800 a really really long way of putting that, was it. Yeah. Uh. 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.480 For instance, you look at um an animal like the 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:08.440 wildebeeste or North American cattle, they're actually sort of parallel 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:13.320 evolutionized and they because they live in very similar areas. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.200 You know, planes, hot, grassy, and uh so they're really 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.920 similar in the end, even though they're on two different continents. 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.600 Number one evolutionized t shirt. Okay, okay, Number two, that's 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:30.040 absolutely right, all right, yeah, thank you, absolutely right? Right? Okay, great, 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:33.720 what do you think? I thought you said? Wrong? And 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:39.440 it's absolutely white? Okay, that's absolutely blite. But Josh, absolutely 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.640 sometimes convergent evolution does not depend on this ecological niche 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.920 because the trait is really advantageous for all kinds of organisms. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:54.880 And that's when you brought up the sharp teeth, limbs, wings, arms. 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.160 Consider this the arms. Uh we can say now looking 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:05.960 at Jean Ms, that arms are a direct relative of fins. 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.320 This again goes to the idea that evolution is a treadmill, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.960 not a ladder. Right, So it's not like arms are 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:17.920 the inevitable and of fins. What are you laughing about. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.920 It's that fins are better suited for swimming around the water. Right. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.800 But the same genes, the same genetics set, the same 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.640 genetic code that give you fins also give you arms 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.400 if you're walking around, maybe swinging from trees or need 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.040 to climb them, or need to like, you know, high 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:39.200 five somebody to keep society going right. Yeah, yeah, same thing. Yeah, 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.960 you're right, but you know, we're not the only things 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.720 that evolved limbs. But limbs are so advantageous, just like 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.720 teeth um that we are. That a lot of different, 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:55.160 completely unrelated species evolved limbs to walk and to grab things. 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.040 And which is what is that convergent evolution? Yes, I 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.800 would say so we're the very least parallel. You know. 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:07.000 I have to say I'm surprising myself, extremely passionate for 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.520 this one. I don't understand why. Well, it's cool. And 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.360 you know, we haven't covered evolution in Earnest as a podcast, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.760 but we've hit on it in so many I think 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:16.840 we're covering it in the long run one way or 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.679 the other. You know what I think it is. I 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.600 am just barely hanging on by my fingernails. So I'm 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.000 really like, yeah, if I say it really fast, it'll 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.800 it'll be right. All right. Let's talk about genetics in 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.520 this whole mess a parallel evolution. There are two things 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.760 to think about when you think about genetics, and the 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.400 first one, I think it's kind of cool. The genetic 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:42.720 code for species potentially has a hidden blueprint almost for 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.679 what it could do but not necessarily does do. And 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.879 the grab stre likned it too. Let's say you have 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.520 a blueprint of a house and the architect designed it 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.040 such that you can add on a master bedroom here 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.920 in this spot, but you never do it. But it's there. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.359 You've got the land and the blueprint it for it. 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.240 You just don't use it right because the architects said, 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.520 don't build that edition yet they don't have the money 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.440 for it. They're just building the house exactly. But it 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.639 still exists in the in the master blueprint. And the 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.880 same can be said of let's say a jellyfish, which 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.560 is round right. There's no right or left side of 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.160 a sea and and and and intomy has radial symmetry, right, 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.760 a jellyfish or an anemony so hard for me? Anemone 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:29.560 show off an enemy now it's not an enemy, uhete 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.160 and chuck. There is no left or right side as 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.639 a radial body plan. It's circular and which is not 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.200 a funny shape at all. And the genetic code, though 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.760 is there. So eventually, one day, let's say the jellyfish 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.399 needed to evolve to have a left or right side 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.679 for some reason, it could do that genetically speaking, the 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.840 code is there. Yeah, for bilateral symmetry, which I have, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.200 which you have? That you could as down the middle. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.640 We could be folded in half. Yes, if you put 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:03.119 a mirror up to your knows perpendicular to your nose, no, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.080 parallel to your nose, the point of your nose, it 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.160 would be half. It looked like you. That's right, right, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.840 you know they say symmetry equals beauty. Yes, that's what 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.440 they say. That's what a lot of people say. Um, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.840 you've got a big walleye on one side. That's why 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.440 you're not attractive. What are you going after? The eyes? 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:29.080 You mentioned disco? I'm another recent podcast, did somebody Okay? So, 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.040 so jellyfish have radio symmetry, but they have a genetic 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.680 marker to kick in bilateral symmetry they ever need it, 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.760 and believe me, I would run horrified from Maybe that's 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.439 what Cathulhu is. It's a it's a jellyfish who's like 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.399 bilateral symmetry has started to kick in a little bit. Nice. Um. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.359 The point is is it's not just jellyfish. There are 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.400 a lot of dormant jeans just ready to go off 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.879 with the right mutation um to change all sorts of 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.080 stuff and they think. Also, I read the article that 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.840 he cited, the art technical article that the jellyfish have 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.879 that so that they can develop their mouth. Yeah, cool, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:13.359 because the mouth requires bilateral symmetry jellyfish. The reason we 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.680 mentioned this to begin with, though, is that the belief 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.600 that you can develop similar traits even though you evolve separately, 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:22.240 which is what we've been talking about this whole time, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:24.880 because the trait has always been in your genetic code 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.360 to begin with, just dormant, right, it's just very very ancient, 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.680 and then it can express in different ways, like apparently 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.880 they looked at the fins of a fish, right and 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.639 found that they have pretty much the same genes that 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:43.400 we do for our arms, okay, and bilateral symmetry. Those 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.680 genes are the same for everything. Right, So we're all 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.840 a lot more related, I guess than we thought now 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.000 that we're starting to look into it. I wonder if, 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:53.680 well we probably know this by now, if we have 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.600 any dormant genetic codes and humans like, we could potentially 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.280 grow that tail if we needed to. Well, apparently we 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:05.040 do have tales in some embryotic development stage. We still 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.640 have distigial tales, and there are people who are born 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.400 with him who don't shed them. That's pretty cool. Who 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.600 had the tale? Uh? Jason Alexander had one in one 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.280 of the Fairly Brothers movies. Yeah, we're like, if it 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.200 was was it? There's something there's something about Mary. Wasn't it? No, No, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:24.359 he wouldn't in that. Are you sure that wasn't it? Yes? 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.639 Thank you? Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant to. Didn't 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.080 one of the friends have a tale? No? No, no, 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.159 Channel had a third nipple? Yes, superfluous Nipplesony Krusty the clown. 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.800 He so, Josh, what's the second thing to consider? Well, 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:42.040 I guess the other thing we've been what got biologists 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:44.879 into the idea of looking at jeans is that we 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.840 were looking at morphological changes, right. Stuff we can see 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.240 like this flying squirrel is not related to that flying squirrel, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:53.240 but they're both flying squirrels, even though we call them 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.080 different things. Philanders um. When we look at the genetic level, 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:02.359 we're finding that like the same morphological traits, the similarities 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.440 are are also found on the genetic level, right, So 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.320 basically they're thinking, like you can you can look at 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:15.160 the ecological pressure, the environmental pressure that caused a polar 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:21.520 bears coat to become white right um on an internal 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.760 level with the interactions between amino acids and proteins that 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:30.280 are causing these genes to be expressed, so internally and externally, 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:36.359 these changes are are occurring um to form flying filangers 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.880 and squirrels on two different continents. Thank you the freak 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.600 show that is Australia for basically pointing science in the 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:45.720 right direction. They love it when we talk about them too. 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.119 We always get email from masses that are just like you. 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:51.800 Guys are the best. Another and they gave us another 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:57.440 one too. Um the Tasmanian wolf now extinct wolf which 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.320 is um almost completely unre related to any other wolf. 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.520 It's extinct, like I said, um, but it is the 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:09.720 spitting image of the gray wolf here in North America, 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.480 even though they're like they were not related, same everything. 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.600 This is the kind of science I dig. Yeah, cool science. Yeah, 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:23.040 not that physics magnetism. You're into physics that sort of 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:27.119 just that a necessity, I guess. Yeah, but you you 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:29.760 have an appreciation more than I do. I think. Really, Yeah, 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.400 you don't like full crumbs? What is wrong with what's 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:36.680 the full crumb? The full crumb is the point it's 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:39.560 like a see saw, right, and that the full crumb. Yeah, okay, 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:41.680