BoredToTears wrote:

On 17 Dec, 18:51, Michelle la Belle <aminotem...@hotmail.com> wrote:

On Dec 17, 1:34 pm, BoredToTears <beejayce...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

On 17 Dec, 18:11, Michelle la Belle <aminotem...@hotmail.com> wrote:

On Dec 17, 4:15 am, Mollie Millipede <mol...@millipede.net> wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3427499.stm
"Scientists have decided that a fossil found near Stonehaven is the remains
of the oldest creature known to have lived on land.
It is thought that the one-centimetre millipede which was prised out of a
siltstone bed is 428 million years old. "
--
- Mollie, with little Millie

No wonder MM is so fond of you. You're apparently highly evolved and
have been for a long time; hence, no need to evolve any more. You're
perfect as you are.

Ermm, no. Things just don't stop evolving; there's no end point to
evolution, no ideal, no target. A species, a population, only stops
evolving when it becomes extinct.- Hide quoted text -
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So why are some things the same as they were millions of years ago?
Such as silverfish?

They're not, they still go through evolutionary changes via gene
mutation and even though they may look superficially similar, they're
not the same species. Look at alligators and crocodiles, they are
broadly similar in appearance but are totally different species, they
can't interbreed successfully for instance, which is one of the
definitions of a species - being able to successfully breed and
produce fertile offspring.

Environmental pressures work on gene mutations by affecting the
breeding success, or other wise, of populations and those gene
mutations which confer an advantage, for instance having a slightly
more efficient metabolism allowing that particular animal to survive
on a slightly less nutritious diet when the available food diminishes,
usually prosper. If there are no environment pressures that push the
population to evolve a different body plan then they will continue to
look very similar. Human beings are still evolving although we have
eliminated some of our environmental pressures, like certain diseases
and, for first world countries, food supplies. Things like pandemics
are evolutionary pressures, like the flu pandemic in 1918 which killed
more people that were killed in the First World War.

Here's an overview of how outward appearance can be misleading, even
within members of the same species and how difficult it can be
deciding which are and aren't different species.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/VA1BioSpeciesConcept.shtml

Yes agreed, I have a suspicion that new species are created, old ones
deleted over time due to environmental conditions, or are hunted out
of existance - survival of the strongest/fittest type stuff.

Cockroaches come to mind as something that has been around for a
long time, and a long time to come. Sure various types have become
extinct, and various types exist in various regions (not in my
appartment though :-) )

I'm not sure the names of MM's ones are, don't think he has
mentioned that, or Millie/Mollie thoughts on that yet :-p

Just for shites and giggles I once had both a hooch plant, and
a jar of roaches in the office at work. No one really said
anything, the small hatched roaches all died because there was
not enough air flow to the jar. I was hoping someone would notice
that was a hint to the air conditioning in the building

setup of cool down, then heat it up again at the vents, sorta like
controling the speed of your vehicle by holding down the loud
pedal and using the brakes to control speed in my mind). And,
yes I do know my air conditioning stuff, mostly automotive
though I know about R134a, R12, R22 systems, however prefer
R290 (propane which is what I put in my truck, and have done
in a number of the above systems, compressor oil is miscible
with R290, whether mineral, ester, or whatever. R134a is
plain wrong - dupont should have their balls cut off), anyway
that's getting a bit off topic ...

The hooch plant was small, so no one recognised what it was :-)
or if they did, they never mentioned it to me. Prolly thought
it a fake $2 shop novelty item.

However, yeah cockroach in my mind. Scores 354-295 million years.- Hide quoted text -

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