Suddenly the years lived by those people before The Flood (according to the Bible) don’t seem so impossible!

The species turritopsis nutricula is able to transform itself from its mature state back into a polyp (immature jellyfish) and then back again – picture a gelatinous ‘Benjamin Button’ on repeat.

…Turritopsis nutricula isn’t the only species to use the technique; salamanders use the process to regrow limbs, while chickens utilize it to repair damaged eyes. Turritopsis nutricula, however, is the only species able to regenerate its entire body.

The entire transformation from adult to polyp takes place very rapidly, helping to explain why it has never been observed in the wild. The process, however, has been observed in the lab, and so far 100 per cent of specimens have been capable of the transformation.

…While the jellyfish can potentially live forever, it’s unlikely that one ever will. That’s because like other jellyfish, Turritopsis nutricula is often eaten by other animals and readily succumbs to disease.

Found at Yahoo Canada via a post on the forum.

Simply stated, Darwin told us that evolution revolves around the survival of the fittest – those least fit don’t make it, and therefore they don’t leave offspring. Those most fit will prosper, and their offspring will inherit the genes that gave them that advantage.

Most experts would say that evolution is a slow process. Some say it can happen rapidly (see “punctuated equilibrium“). I figure both are correct – it can happen fast, medium or slow. The more extreme the circumstances, the more rapid the evolution.

In late 2007 SciAm published an opinion piece that highlights just how rapidly evolution can occur:

Brought to Queensland in 1935 to combat beetles infesting sugarcane fields, the [Cane]toads have spread out from their point of entry like the shock waves of a bomb, warty legs and oversize tongues jettisoned into every conceivable ecological crack.

…Recent research… has shown that the toads are evolving as they spread, perfecting their ability to adapt to the Australian landscape. The toads at the front edge of the invasion now have smaller bodies, reduced toxicity and relatively longer legs, apparently because individuals with those traits were having greater success. The native fauna has evolved in response: the mouths of some snake species are getting smaller, for instance, because so many of the snakes with big mouths were eating the poisonous cane toads and dying off.

In a global cataclysm scenario, evolutionary pressures can become extreme. Larger, less-populous species are more likely to become extinct (less places to hide, less numbers). The butterfly effect of this can wreak havoc on the what was previously a well-balanced scenario. Changed landscapes and climates can suddenly create challenges, giving advantage to those best suited to the changed situation.

Unless we have scientists observing the the most extreme circumstances nature can toss our way, we will be unable to realise how rapid evolution can be – we will be unable to realise that gaps in the evolutionary tree come down to the sheer speed of the evolution itself.

The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, the study says.

…The biggest changes have come since the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, which opened up new environments for the quickly expanding human population to grow from millions to billions.

More people mean more mutations, Harpending noted.

“You are also giving them the potential to be adaptive mutations,” said Brian Verrelli, who studies population genetics and evolution at Arizona State University in Tempe and was not involved in the research.

Hmmm…

Evolution has speed up since 10,00 years ago – for me this means since the last global cataclysm.

“More people means more mutations”. How about, more cosmic rays meant more mutations!

Regarding the very beginning, ie DNA, the recent analysis of an Australian meteorite provides evidence for Carl Sagan’s idea that we are of extra-terrestial origins:

Researchers discovered the organic molecules uracil and xanthine in the meteorite and confirmed they could not have formed on Earth. These molecules, called nucleobases, are precursors to DNA…

“Emergent life systems may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in an early and primitive genetic material, enabling them to pass on their successful features to the next generations,” said study leader Zita Martins of Imperial College London.

Regarding our evolution from apes to humans, I came across an article at Nature.com that proposes a nuclear reactor could occur at the base of Earth’s mantle – providing heat and also radiation. The key factor for me is this:

Yet it is clear that natural nuclear reactors can occur. Crustal rocks at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, bear unambiguous evidence of spontaneous ignition of uranium fission in mineral deposits 1.7 billion years ago.

As humans, we originated in Africa. Radiation made it to the surface in Africa. Radiation causes mutations. Mutations can lead to evolution.

Further (minor) evidence for my evolution circa 10,000 BC theories:

A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before then, there were no blue eyes.

…”From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor,” Eiberg said. “They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” Eiberg and his colleagues detailed their study in the Jan. 3 online edition of the journal Human Genetics.

That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.

“The question really is, ‘Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?” Hawks said. “This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids.”

http://www.livescience.com/health/080131-blue-eyes.html

Unless of course multiple people had the same mutation during the last cataclysm. My theory postulates that during a massive influx of cosmic rays, human DNA chose which mutations to repair, and which to leave be. I suggest that our DNA is happy to experiment with such things as size and colour – things that should not affect our function much, if at all.