• Question: How can one species "turn into" another?

    Asked by tiyamikee to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Maria on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      If a species encounters a new set of ecological problems, and some individuals mutate and develop new strategies to deal with it, then some might ‘speciate’ and turn into another species. So, they diverge from the original population, and create a new one.

Comments

  • Photo: tiyamikee

    tiyamikee commented on :

    soo say an ape; what exactly did it have to do and how to turn into a human ?
    and how did it learn to talkk< would that be one of the "strategies" you mean ? :/

  • Photo: Bridget

    Bridget commented on :

    How and why humans split off from other apes is exactly the sort of question that evolutionary scientists like me are interested in, so these are great questions. Learnign to talk (language) would certainly have abeen a defining feature in human evolution. At one point there were lots of other human-like animals (hominids), but now there is only one left (Homo sapiens). It might be that language gave us a competitive advantage! So yes, language probably evolved as a strategy to solve a specific problem. A common theory is that language evolved to bond social groups, and allow us to live in large, complex societies. You can’t live in social groups without communicating and keeping track of friends/enemies! The fact that other apes don’t have language is also interesting, but many of us are looking at what makes their communication (like facial expression) different to us, and what makes it similar. i could go on about this for ages…so i will stop now. 🙂