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How Birds Lost Their Teeth
An anonymous reader writes A research team from the University of California, Riverside and Montclair State University, New Jersey, have found that the lack of teeth in all living birds can be traced back to a common ancestor who lived about 116 million years ago. From the article: "To solve this puzzle, the researchers used a recently created genome database that catalogues the genetic history of nearly all living bird orders--48 species in total. They were looking for two specific types of genes: one responsible for dentin, the substance that (mostly) makes up teeth, and another for the enamel that protects them. Upon finding these genes, researchers then located the mutations that deactivate them, and combed the fossil record to figure out when those mutations developed. They concluded that the loss of teeth and the development of the beak was a two-stage process, though the steps basically happened simultaneously. The paper states: 'In the first stage, tooth loss and partial beak development began on the anterior portion of both the upper and lower jaws. The second stage involved concurrent progression of tooth loss and beak development from the anterior portion of both jaws to the back of the rostrum.'"
It's superior if and only if you need to dig for grubs in dirt and wood with your mouth.
Why give up teeth
Because as things changed and the years passed they became more of a hindrance than a help to birds (or their ancestors) and so those offspring born with fewer teeth, or smaller teeth, were better at surviving and having offspring.
how to convince your unborn offspring to do take it to the next step.
Why would any "convincing" be required? The offspring are likely to face the same challenges as their parents. If they've got traits that help them survive better than their peers - such as fewer or smaller teeth - then they'll pass these on to their offspring. Then, in turn, those offspring will be facing the same pressures again. So once again, among those offspring, those with fewer or smaller have a better chance at surviving than their brothers and sisters (and cousins).
You would expect these animals to be superior to us and make conscious decisions to change their DNA, to evolve
What animals are you talking about? No animal needs to make a conscious decision to evolve. It's already taken care of by inheritance and selection pressure.
As long as you've got a mechanism for children to be largely similar to but ever-so-slightly different from their parents, and a reason for some of those offspring to reproduce more successfully than others because of those differences, then evolution is inevitable.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The example I use is Butterflies, which change from a crawling creature to one that flies, mid life. Incredible "random" feat if you ask me.
It's not random. The ability for adult insects to fly evolved gradually. That has nothing to do with the fact that insects go through metamorphosis, which most likely evolved independently and prior to the capability of flight
Your argument makes as much sense as saying: "I don't believe evolution because people can talk using air even though they spend 9 months sealed up in a bag of water."
Exactly my point. Half Beak, Half Teeth doesn't make sense.
Umm, the universe is not limited to doing only those things that make sense to YOU. I'd even say it's pretty damn arrogant of you to presume your powers of comprehension are literally some kind of universal limiting factor.
"I can't figure out how evolution could have worked, ergo it must be impossible."
Sure. The powers of your brain cells place limits on biological processes that happened hundreds of millions if not billions of years ago? Uh huh. I bet your unicorns fart butterflies, too.
Hell, just for shits and grins let's assume that God did in fact create humanity in His image. He's God - omniscient and omnipotent. If He wanted to create man in His image by using evolution, He could do just that.
I RTFA, big mistake. Nobody knows, and all arguments are counterdictory to each other. In other words, an article about we don't know why, and we are saying we don't know why. I find myself not breathless waiting for the next article from Captain Obvious.
Good science involves being very clear about what you don't know.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Apparently they were more successful than the ones with just teeth. That's all it takes.
It doesn't even necessarily take that much. Sometimes the mutated offspring only has to be not so much worse that it can't manage to reproduce. It could potentially be slightly worse, as long as there's enough room for both to survive.