Representative Press Blog

The Smoke Eater asks, "How is is possible that if ALL LIFE came from the same single celled organism, and started at the same time, that humans have evolved so far and dogs haven't? "

Evolution doesn't actually mean that things get "more advanced", it really means that things change. Changes that increase the likelihood that a living thing will survive to create another generation is what evolution is about. Dogs can have puppies, they aren't going to just disappear automatically. If a particular dog gains a characteristic, it doesn't automatically mean that other dogs suddenly die out or even slowly die out. The others will live as long as they are able to survive and have offspring.

"Biological evolution refers to the cumulative changes that occur in a population over time. These changes are produced at the genetic level as organisms' genes mutate and/or recombine in different ways during reproduction and are passed on to future generations. Sometimes, individuals inherit new characteristics that give them a survival and reproductive advantage in their local environments; these characteristics tend to increase in frequency in the population, while those that are disadvantageous decrease in frequency." What is evolution?