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Discussion and Debate
Discussion and Debate
Physical & Life Sciences
Creation & Evolution
Do we humans disprove evolution?
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<blockquote data-quote="FrumiousBandersnatch" data-source="post: 75818581" data-attributes="member: 241055"><p>A key point to note about evolution is that, for the vast majority of creatures, knowledge doesn't come into it. </p><p></p><p>Most insectivorous plants evolved in wet, relatively impoverished or sterile niches, typically low in nitrogen and phosphorous. When dead insects dropped onto leaves or drowned in, for example, the little pools of water where leaves meet stems, the nitrogen & phosphorus they contained would leach out and diffuse into the leaf or stem. This gave a selective advantage to plants that trapped larger pools of water, and/or had slippery surfaces around the water, and/or had more permeable cell walls in that area, and/or were more attractive to insects, and/or were growing on or below plants from which insects were likely to fall into those little pools, etc.</p><p></p><p>The digestive juices contain modifications of the chemicals the plants used to deter and kill pathogens (e.g. bacteria, fungi). Fungal cell walls are made of chitin, the same polymer that insect exoskeletons are made of, so the plants had ready-made enzymes to break down insect armour. There would be a clear selective advantage for more insect-specific chitinases and proteolytic enzymes.</p><p></p><p>However, I'm not an expert in this field, and this really isn't the place for specific evolutionary biology lessons, so for more details on the evolution of insectivorous plants, I recommend Google - they have quite an effective search engine.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FrumiousBandersnatch, post: 75818581, member: 241055"] A key point to note about evolution is that, for the vast majority of creatures, knowledge doesn't come into it. Most insectivorous plants evolved in wet, relatively impoverished or sterile niches, typically low in nitrogen and phosphorous. When dead insects dropped onto leaves or drowned in, for example, the little pools of water where leaves meet stems, the nitrogen & phosphorus they contained would leach out and diffuse into the leaf or stem. This gave a selective advantage to plants that trapped larger pools of water, and/or had slippery surfaces around the water, and/or had more permeable cell walls in that area, and/or were more attractive to insects, and/or were growing on or below plants from which insects were likely to fall into those little pools, etc. The digestive juices contain modifications of the chemicals the plants used to deter and kill pathogens (e.g. bacteria, fungi). Fungal cell walls are made of chitin, the same polymer that insect exoskeletons are made of, so the plants had ready-made enzymes to break down insect armour. There would be a clear selective advantage for more insect-specific chitinases and proteolytic enzymes. However, I'm not an expert in this field, and this really isn't the place for specific evolutionary biology lessons, so for more details on the evolution of insectivorous plants, I recommend Google - they have quite an effective search engine. [/QUOTE]
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Do we humans disprove evolution?
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