• Question: could people fly and grow gills in 30o million years as we evolved from fish

    Asked by to Greig, Dave on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      With evolution, anything is possible! But, it doesn’t really matter what we evolved from. Evolution is all about very small changes or mutations that happen between parents and children. If these mutation turn out to be really useful, like having stronger arms, better eyesight, being able to breathe under water, then they will probably survive and pass on those mutations to their children. In hundreds of generations of children, these mutations keep happening and the best survive better than the worst and that’s how they become normal.

    • Photo: Greig Cowan

      Greig Cowan answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      In principle, anything is possible. One of the main points to remember with evolution is that the mutations survive if they give some advantage to the individual. Therefore, for humans to develop how to fly, there would need to be some quite severe land-based predator that we were trying to escape by taking to the skies. However, rather than develop wings, maybe it would be simpler (and faster, since evolution requires many many generations!) to just build taller buildings?

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