Re: Intriguing new concept regarding human origins

Walter Bushell wrote:
In article < $1a2l$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
John Wilkins <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Gregory A Greenman wrote:
In article <1146910820.683509.97750
@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>, hugheaston01@xxxxxxxxxxx <hugheaston01@xxxxxxxxxxx> declared...
Desertphile wrote:

1) Many organisms destroy their environments;
2) Other organisms move into those destroyed environments and live
perfectly happy and healthy
Example please? AFAIK, most if not all cases of organisms damaging
their environments are foreign species introduced by humans. Hardly
relevant to the more general case of life throughout Earth's history.

How about a disease or parasite that kills its host?
It doesn't matter so long as the host species is numerous and able to replace the lost "resources" (from the pathogen's POV). Once host numbers get too low, there is selection for less virulence. I doubt there have been many pathogens that extinguish all their hosts.

How would we know? All we can see is a lineage dying out, we don't have causes in most cases.

Because most lineages don't die out in a great extinction event, and all lineages have pathogens. To kill all hosts, something would need to be pretty virulent and the hosts immunologically naive.

--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project
University of Queensland - Blog: evolvethought.blogspot.com
"He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious."

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Intriguing new concept regarding human origins
    ... Other organisms move into those destroyed environments and live ... AFAIK, most if not all cases of organisms damaging ... It doesn't matter so long as the host species is numerous and able to replace the lost "resources". ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Intriguing new concept regarding human origins
    ... Other organisms move into those destroyed environments and live ... It doesn't matter so long as the host species is numerous and able to replace ... Guns don't kill people; automobiles kill people. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Intriguing new concept regarding human origins
    ... Other organisms move into those destroyed environments and live ... It doesn't matter so long as the host species is numerous and able to replace the lost "resources". ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Intriguing new concept regarding human origins
    ... Other organisms move into those destroyed environments and live ... It doesn't matter so long as the host species is numerous and able to replace ...
    (talk.origins)