Thursday, 9 March 2017

evolution - How does natural selection explain how organisms that are poisonous evolved?


Natural selection makes perfect sense when describing the evolution of say camouflage. For example 2 bugs of the same species live on a tree. One is mutated to look slightly more like a tree, so the bird misses it and eats the one that sticks out more.


This logic seems to fail for poisonous animals though. For example, two bugs are equally visible but one has developed a mutation to be poisonous. Since they are both easy to spot they both get eaten. Now the poisonous mutation has died out. How does natural selection explain the poison mutation overcoming the initial hurdle?




No comments:

Post a Comment

evolution - Are there any multicellular forms of life which exist without consuming other forms of life in some manner?

The title is the question. If additional specificity is needed I will add clarification here. Are there any multicellular forms of life whic...