What is Impossible in Evolution?

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Could humans ever evolve to have wings? Why don’t fish have propellers? Why don’t tigers have wheels? Why don’t zebras have laser turrets? These might all seem like stupid questions (and maybe they are!) but they can teach us a lot about how evolution actually works, and how it doesn’t work.
References: sites.google.com/view/whatisi...
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[@besmart]

We’re aware some people are seeing glitches and artifacts on the video. We’ve reviewed and it’s not in the master video file! Seems to be a problem on KZbin’s end with how they encode the videos (we aren’t the only channel affected), and we hope it’s fixed soon.

[@RudeAlert]

THANK YOU for mentioning this! I was starting to freak out, wondering if it was my computer about to croak. Well, at least it's not just your channel, and this was a great video anyways, so who care about a few weird visual glitches. Keep up the good work.

[@brokeandtired]

But evolution can evolve laser Zebras... It evolves humans who then can put lasers on Zebras.

[@mixtlillness9825]

I see. So it’s not the drugs then.

[@mixei4]

I've already started looking for a hidden message there.

[@Goryus]

5-legged cats have actually been observed...maybe worth a correction.

[@Happy-yf8bc]

“Why is there no giraffe-sized chickens” Because they got wiped out by a space rock

[@Eldritch-1]

became KFC in the modern age.

[@hydrolito]

Some guy might think it is possible to clone them and figure out a way to do it that was plot of movie Death Birds.

[@motazfawzi2504]

They are exclusive for the Skyrim DLC of the Universe.

[@ygotsvlog3762]

@@Eldritch-1 they got cooked

[@antz4thehour601]

True

[@vekkimheng8766]

People : where's the laser zebras?! Evolution : crabs, take it or leave it.

[@zeppelincraft1443]

While crabs: We have microscopic vision that defines more than enough colors and we can make plasma out of our claws.

[@kadmuspl830]

insert "silence brand" meme

[@anotherrandomguy8871]

Pistol shrimp who can fire heat bubbles out of their huge claw like a cannon: sup

[@newmeta2668]

@@anotherrandomguy8871 meanwhile mantis shrimp who can also create heat bubbles on impact with their club like arms: sup

[@caseyhansen4467]

Lmao I love that I understood the reference 😂

[@breadloafbrad]

The hills and valleys representation of evolution is actually an incredible way of visualizing it

[@vast634]

The same concept lies behind training artificial neural nets. Its an optimization problem, searching in the space of opportunities.

[@clapdrix72]

It's a useful framework for solving a lot of problems. Machine learning for one.

[@Dad-rk8pi]

​@@vast634Exactly, i was visualising gradient descent when he was talking about evolution

[@steelbear2063]

Though there's something to be said about moving downwards. No it's not really downwards, but simplification is a thing also, where organisms lose some traits

[@JakeEast68]

​@@steelbear2063I was just thinking about the fact that if a species lost the need for something, they could "travel back down the hill" and possibly go up a new one

[@MartijnMuller]

Some hairless ape: why don't we have giraffe-sized chickens? Dinosaurs: am I a joke to you?

[@ishowslow5044]

Elephant birds: Yes.

[@AhmedAffraz]

"If humans could fly, we'd consider it exercise and never do it" - Ron Swanson

[@jayav2877]

I didn't know someone had said this before and honestly had a conversation about this last year.

[@faustin289]

... unless you could mate mid-flight.

[@Unknown-tv3bi]

@@faustin289 That would take a lot of mating.

[@sam_9228]

I miss Parks and Rec lol

[@InfinityOrNone]

@@faustin289 Flying is complicated enough as is, I doubt anyone would be able to pull it off mid-coitus. Take the Bald Eagle's mid-air mating; they don't do it while flying, they do it while _falling._

[@so-ares]

"Nature is infinitely creative" - Keep creating crabs...

[@KoneSkirata]

I understood that reference!

[@thewildcardperson]

Nice

[@gardenhead92]

You can’t argue with perfection

[@kiryu4708]

Ya I got crabs

[@kiryu4708]

Oh wait not that kind... nvm

[@recon17]

actually, microscopic organisms have a more "mechanical" way of transport and a lot of biochemical process resemble large scale machines.

[@davidec.2853]

Yeah, in fact all animals actually move thanks to wheels, because ATP syntasis, the enzyme that allows the storing of energy into ATP, has a rotating mechanism. So we get the energy to move thanks to basically a wheel.

[@Birginio420]

That's why we call it the "molecular machinery". Also, yeah ATP Synthase is pretty awesome. Basically a molecular motor.

[@noahboucher125]

That's really cool!

[@jackroyaltea5034]

Same with motor proteins in our bodies. They have “wheels”.

[@hantuun]

@@davidec.2853 because at the microscopic scale, ATP is active and working in the open nutrient solution, but people are not completely open in the air, and cannot directly obtain all the nutrients they need from the air

[@csabalako1788]

Excuses, excuses... I want my zebras with laser turrets!

[@blendersparticlesystem5220]

Everybody does

[@crazydinosaur8945]

@@blendersparticlesystem5220 think Lions dont

[@GabiN64]

​@@crazydinosaur8945 they should evolve deflector shields then

[@jellyfishno.22]

Forget zebras, why don't I have laser turrets!?

[@doktormcnasty]

@@jellyfishno.22 Zebras need them more than you do because of all the lions, crocodiles, wild dogs, & hyenas they have to content with.

[@joshuasims5421]

Giraffe size chicken isn’t remotely impossible, that’s a T-rex

[@toastiesburned9929]

Yeah, but they would have to switch back on a lot of genes that might have mutated away. Re-evolving giantism would probably be pretty hard for a domesticated species. At least without a special breeding program... 🤔

[@spacesharkwriter6554]

Yes, the tyrannosaurus genus died a long time ago, trex was one of the last tyrannosaurs, t-rex was already on the decline, it was evolving into a bird, it was growing feathers and turning into a chicken, the atmosphere and the climate, it was more efficient to be a small bird, think about that the next time you eat chicken wings, 11 year old dinosaur genus out ✌🏻

[@rogeriopenna9014]

@@Clifford_Banes Dino bones were just like bird bones. And no, duck bones are stronger than the more solid mammal bones with the same cross section. That's exactly the reason why dinosaurs could grow to larger sizes than mammals. With the same cross section, a dino bone is stronger and thus can support more mass than a mammal bone

[@saturnianrings3920]

It’s CRISPR time.

[@SirSpiro]

LMAO

[@matheuroux5134]

If we all start actively pretending that large arms are super attractive, and seek mates with massive arms, that would be the first step towards a wing evolution.

[@spiderpickle3255]

Human hands > wings Our hands are one of those extremely high evolutionary peaks, arguably a higher one than wings. Look into how our fingernails absolutely blow away claws and then consider what our dexterity has enabled us to build as a species.

[@bsu5574]

@@spiderpickle3255 b..but...wings.... :((

[@asiantom4935]

@@spiderpickle3255 ok but wings

[@monad_tcp]

nah, the only thing we all know it will happen is that humans will get higher and higher

[@chargemankent]

@@monad_tcp Welp... I think that's enough weed today~

[@gilgonzalez8985]

“You don’t just get something because it’s cool” My financial decisions beg to differ.

[@RanEdgar-ok3wk]

🫵😨 no stop how dare save your money good sir/mis/they Don’t do itttttt😭😭

[@weston407]

I had the EXACT same experience with Return to Oz and the wheelers when I was a kid - the wheeler looking through the keyhole absolutely terrified me

[@cherriewithrow4061]

*MOOOOOOAAAAAANNNNNN*

[@cherriewithrow4061]

*GROOOAAANNN*

[@cherriewithrow4061]

I do this for no reason

[@shallowseller3893]

5 millions years later Laser Zebra: Well guess what.

[@ChaseTSY]

Lmfao

[@ChaseTSY]

Lmfao

[@therealgboi3895]

@@ChaseTSY Lmfao

[@therealgboi3895]

@@ChaseTSY Lmfao

[@wtfmarcello5547]

@@therealgboi3895 Lmfao

[@saims.2402]

When I first learned about evolution, it was from Pokémon, I was 4 and I sat in a corner trying to evolve. Edit: I only believed evolution works like in Pokémon until I was 8 or 9.

[@eternalblue4660]

Well, did it work?

[@saims.2402]

@@eternalblue4660 I evolved into a bored teenager.

[@amalirfan]

@@saims.2402 now where you at, did you get to adulthood :D

[@saims.2402]

@@amalirfan now I’m evolved into a KZbin commenting teenager

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Pokemon style evolution is EXACTLY how creationists think Evolution works, and use as a strawman to discredit it. "Why don´t we see apes turning into humans... like right now?". "Why no ducks turning into crocodiles?"

[@Mightydoggo]

I remember my grandparents having a Trabant. It was loud, stinky, had a tendency to fall apart and if you hit a cobblestone road, it would severely hamper your reproduction capabilities for a few days. Still the flexibility compared to the horse cart we often took to the market at weekends was superb. You also had no heater, so we used to put one of those propane gas canisters on the backseat with a heating unit on it. Oh and the doors stopped working towards the end, so we had to enter/leave through the window. Yeah... "Good" old times, eh? Nowadays even on the countryside every family has at least 2 cars, often more and you even see stuff like Teslas from time to time. Among a lot of tractors and the occasional horse/dog cart.

[@marrrtin]

Worth mentioning that nature makes wheels, or at least rotors at the molecular scale, such as a flagellum, like a propellor for a protist, or the famous "waterwheel driven by protons", ATP Synthase.

[@hoi-polloi1863]

Right, on the macro scale wheels get really hard because you have to be able to feed the "spinny bits" without having them attached to the circulatory system. At tiny scales all kinds of great stuff becomes practical!

[@bubblebeamm]

I dont even want wings man i just want the lumbar spine to be able to support us

[@azhero09]

A truly underappreciated comment

[@blazingtrs6348]

for that the people with back pain shouldn’t propagate

[@azhero09]

@@blazingtrs6348 let's do it for science then

[@zombkillrb]

I'm telling y'all cybernetics is where it's at, I heard developers talk about how the only people who would use it would be those who need it like amputees but I'm not convinced that if it were really effecient that it wouldn't become used recreationally and complimentary like to eliminate the effects of carpal tunnel syndrome or others like it

[@whatwhale5888]

@@zombkillrb oh for sure, I dont dount people will be recreationally augmenting themselves for medical reasons but also for fun. Personally im looking forward to eye implants. Like imagine being able to take pics or zoom or have night vision with your eyes

[@ewanbiesinger7667]

A lovely way to sum this up would be to state that “evolution is lazy”. Evolution will solve a problem in the easiest way possible. And will never go out of its way to make a species superior.

[@anunknownperson4018]

it will take years for species evolution to change, look at radiation it last till probably more than 24 yrs, maybe in the future humans or animals will resist radiation?

[@ewanbiesinger7667]

@@anunknownperson4018 surely resistance to radiation is one of the things that is actively being worked on by evolution right now… However as you correctly stated, this will take years.

[@patricknogueiraa]

Exactly, evolution has nothing to do with being superior, it is about being fit for your environment at the lowest cost. That's why not all animals end up big, predators or having high intelligence

[@kilroy987]

Evolution: Make owl ears asymmeterical so they can use sound to see, let this snail shed its body and grow a new one from just its head, make this walking stick look just like a leaf, and this beetle shoots hot chemicals from its butt.

[@MultiMolly21]

Oh yes it will. Right now, we are Nature's darlings because we're going to save the planet, once we get our ducks in a row that is. We needed the infinitely powerful Atomic Bomb, and for that She was willing to sacrifice trillions of us, but now that we have that, and the capacity to spot a meteor on its way to smash us, we can get civilized again and clean things up a bit. Remember, we're not done evolving; we're a work in progress. But we're also the Saints here, and all of Life on Earth is counting on us.

[@TheSniff517]

"We're still not gonna grow wings though." Me: Drinks Redbull

[@KuyoCuteeTv]

im a simple guy, i see zebra with laser, i click. this means there is a possibility of mermaids existing

[@juksleo6257]

**Looks at the thumbnail** **looks at my pet Zebra** Me: "it's ok Gerald, don't listen to him, your lasers will grow in a few years"

[@Lucian_Andries]

We love you just the way you are..... :)))))))))))))

[@Artist_of_Imagination]

Wait you have a pet zebra?!!

[@NurseSnow2U]

🤣🤣🤣, it’s gonna be just fine Gerald.

[@andrinjohn3449]

@@Artist_of_Imagination toys may be 😂

[@ronjayrose9706]

Stop lying to that poor zebra

[@miketacos9034]

Birds: "If only we had hands instead of these useless wings, so we could build laser cannons."

[@Galaxia7]

Said 50 % of New Zealand birds

[@rowandunning6877]

yeah, a lot of birds are fuckin' smart

[@God-ch8lq]

Haha crows go brrrr

[@ExtantFrodo2]

Building prosthetics for animals so they can be tool users... hmm.

[@tres-2b299]

Birds: i wish we had hands Humans: i wish we had wings

[@onimaruvt]

the landscape graph was such a good visual representation

[@Mikado8]

It’s been a really long time since the last time i learned that many new things with so many really great explanations

[@ariedevs]

Meanwhile in another multiverse zebrazooka just started their world war 9.

[@thoticcusprime9309]

nope

[@chiefmaster2128]

Kamikaze butterfly's don't stand a chance

[@MaskFaceStup1dP4nc4kes]

it's funny to imagine these stuff happening in other realities.

[@mega-_-1984]

@@chiefmaster2128 nah they'll team up with lemon starfish and destroy zebrazookas

[@OTDinosaurScrubs]

@@mega-_-1984 but the rocket rhinos stay on top

[@Eralen00]

Europeans: "You don't use wheels? You know, those round thingies that spin on axles?" Mesoamericans: "Oh we put those on our toys for children"

[@chandrasekarannatarajan3542]

Then they sacrifice them

[@RhodianColossus]

@@chandrasekarannatarajan3542 there were people other than aztecs in the americas you know

[@thememoryhole9355]

I'll bet the toys were copied from other cultures from wheeled societies, perhaps the Chinese.

[@Sorrowdusk]

@@thememoryhole9355 they'd have to MEET the Chinese first

[@thememoryhole9355]

@@Sorrowdusk Yes. I'm suggesting the Chinese may have made it to the Americas, among others.

[@oddinvestigator]

Best way I've seen someone explaining square cube law. The volume increases at a higuer rate in comparison to area. It's possible to create a relation between the increments, but impossible directly between volume and area, as the area/volume ratio doesn't exist since the units differ.

[@5driedgrams]

4:40 "please leave" lol this is gold

[@darkwowplayer]

"Why haven't Zebras evolved laser turrets to fend off lions?" FINALLY, SOMEONE IS ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS!

[@brolydictcumberbatchmontou401]

is an electrical eel not close enough to an equally doable evolutionary trait? I mean tasering crocodiles or lions sneaking up to you in the watering hole seems like a good savannah trait, why don't we see a lot of land animals develop this trait? Because it isn't all that useful on land, and takes a greater amount of food consumption to fuel the organs needed to generate the necessary stores of attack and in the Zebra's case why need it when you have a heard and one the most powerful hind kicks per square inch. A secondary defense system in an a mostly non aquatic life style doesn't evolve because it isn't efficient. Not when you already have useful defense systems.

[@brolydictcumberbatchmontou401]

And if I also add electric eels have developed this unique defense as an effective offense system as well. So it has double benefits for a predator. Not an herbivore in the long run on land.

[@terrytheinsane]

It is because zebras don't need laser turrets, they use their stripes to hypnotize predators

[@evalynnlindquist8111]

I was more concerned about sharks with freakin Lazer beams on their heads

[@santy214gamer5]

@@terrytheinsane I hope you where joking because that is the most incorrect statement I have heard in a long time

[@Loth_kat]

Einstein: "You can't teach a fish to climb a tree." Mudskipper: *climbs tree Einstein: ....

[@odeofdespair]

Funny, but you got the quote wrong. Its "If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life thinking its stupid." or something to that affect.

[@Loth_kat]

@@odeofdespair ye but however stupid the fish thought it was, it finally climbed a tree

[@sayakchoudhury9711]

There's a fish literally called Climbing Perch

[@Loth_kat]

@@ludnixvonbithoven2644 xD not exactly how he said it. It's just for jokes

[@ligth3977]

There are people with disabilities that did the almost impossible.

[@antigrav6004]

'when you're the best, why try harder?' - crabs

[@dasstigma]

5:36 I need this as a poster!

[@andyt1313]

I read this somewhere. Evolution isn’t about the “best” or even the “good”, it’s about the “good enough”

[@altrag]

Sort of but not really. If say, zebras evolved lasers to fight off all their predators they would definitely be "good enough", but there would still be competition for mates and food and the like so the entire species as a whole would continue to get "better" even though all of the pressures are all internal. It would be a much, much slower evolution than would be produced by external pressures, but it would still happen.

[@nate7LP_my_dog_found_the_knife]

@@altrag maybe lions would evolve laser beams or ways to deflect the laser.

[@menacetosociety9076]

@@nate7LP_my_dog_found_the_knife mirror lions 😳

[@vedantjain5853]

You probably heard it on KZbin as I did too recently but can’t remember from which video

[@matheussanthiago9685]

evolution is the greatest C - student

[@maxwoo9695]

"thats why its impossible" 200000 years later, Zebras: whanna bet

[@electronx5594]

i doubt if its gonna still be a zebra

[@rishikesh4117]

Possible but not inside 200k years Dont give that nuub in the first reply likes

[@maxwoo9695]

@ً ruh roh reggy

[@ph1l69]

Sans

[@maxwoo9695]

@@ph1l69 ye

[@erivanjunior9368]

I actually was about to comment about the mulefas. Glad to see the reference and they actually look even weirder than I had imagined when I read the books.

[@Somebody_VK]

Well, I suppose it's time to lock a zebra in a laser room for a couple million years.

[@nobody5093]

when people say they want wings, i don't think anyone is thinking about turning their arms in to wings but having wings come out of their back.

[@SunniMerlot]

Exactly. Angel style

[@notmyopinion4981]

i wish we could engineer those, but they apparently have to be huge, to support us and their own weight, cuz they also will be heavy, since we don't have much materials that are light enough and also efficient... so yeah... kinda a bummer

[@nettewilson853]

Yes

[@nettewilson853]

@@notmyopinion4981 but we could be smaller and have lighter bones maybe???

[@rymontgomery7546]

Seems even less likely

[@sagealyxander]

i have a bachelors degree in biology and I was never taught about that "can only go uphill" thing in my four frickin years. thanks IOTBS lol

[@thomasw4422]

We learnt about that while studying genetic/evolution based optimisation algorithms. If you up the mutation rate to very high levels, you can sorta. But you also risk losing any advantages. It's like the chance of superpowers vs cancer.

[@Tyronejizz]

Why is someone with a bachelor degree in bilogy watching a kids show?

[@jacobrutzke691]

@@Tyronejizz because its interesting and people like learning new things

[@Tyronejizz]

@@jacobrutzke691 if he has a bachlor in biology he should already know why you can't evolve wings.

[@jacobrutzke691]

@@Tyronejizz so you can always learn new things and some times it's just fun to listen to something in the background

[@jinhuaofficial1608]

The thumbnail got me lmao now I am here but this was an enjoyable video

[@SirNobleIZH]

But I WANT MY LASER ZEBRA!!!

[@lluma8153]

Looks at thumbnail “Hey Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!”

[@mseandimitriusk7636]

*muuuuuum

[@beingrandomisfun6927]

LASER ZEBRAS!!

[@kusaisama]

@Funtime Florian Candace

[@benijager1372]

Some biomechanical zebra

[@Carlo99yehey]

@@kusaisama dan

[@brian576]

Very disappointing, they totally missed out on "sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads"

[@besmart]

Geneva Conventions forbid it

[@ReprucssionsForever]

@@besmart Mutate the gene in Geneva convention to GENE-VA-riation Convention....and give us the damn psychedelic octopus.......

[@saturnianrings3920]

Get filthy rich. Get a team of Scientist to go wild with CRISPR and your in business.

[@DneilB007]

@@ReprucssionsForever No, not *that* Geneva Convention. Joe means the 1952 Geneva Copyright Convention. Dr. Evil Jr would demonetize the video.

[@daisybuchanan8205]

Dr Evil hhhhhhh

[@DeFaulty101]

TL;DR, I explain how evolution could actually produce lazer zebras (2nd paragraph if low on time or patience). I can appreciate that answering all questions pertaining to the abilities of evolution with the appropriate degree of nuance is no small task. This is why I have always found it useful to employ what I call 'conjecturifics' or 'conjecturific language;' language denoting an appropriate degree of uncertainty, such as "perhaps" when you are giving one two possible explanations where you have no inclinations, "I suspect" when it is your prefered explanation but not by a wide margin, 'I am confident' when it *is* prefered by a wide margin (ideally for good reason), etc. You actually did a pretty decent job of this, but I have an objection. When discussing the 'zebras acquiring lazer weapons' being impossible because of the transitionary stages being less fit, you assume the only path is one where components of the weapon would be acquired one at a time, and the weapon would only be useful upon completion. In reality, this is not the only path. There is the evolutionary path taken, for example, by the camera / eye. The eye started as a bit of light-sensitive brain tissue. This enabled early acquatic animals to determine when a predator was approaching, because a small amount of light was penetrating their outer layers - just as we can still see some of the light when we cover a flashlight with our hands - and this light was now being obscured. Over time, the tissue covering this light sensitive brain-matter was lost, leaving these early eyes exposed. Over time, that brain tissue specialized for photon detection exclusively. Over time, eyes changed shape into a chamber (from which the word "camera" is derrived) with a pinhole through which light from different point sources would be mapped to specific photon receptors. Over time, eyes developed shutters, or irises, to change the size of the pinhole, enabling animals to focus on things near or distant. Zebras could evolve bio-luminescence, as so many animals have, if their environment changed to grant them an advantage for doing so. This bioluminescence could evolve into stronger bursts of light if, for example, their environment consisted of a single source of nutrients which were stunned when struck with a burst of light. Competition between this predator zebra and this prey animal might result in the prey becoming resistant to increasingly strong bursts of light, and zebras producing increasingly powerful bursts of light. There. That is how evolution could actually produce lazer zebras. I very much doubt this will ever happen, but it is not 'impossible in evolution.'

[@FindTheFun]

Local optima is actually a great way to think about addictions. It's difficult to quit your addictions because you have to go down a lesser peak to find you pathway to a higher one.

[@danieljensen2626]

Zebras could use a small glowing red spot to attract mates, then use a low wattage laser to distract lions (think laser pointer and cat), and then eventually power up the laser into a defensive weapon.

[@kindlin]

Now I really want to see the biological mechanism of a laser. I can almost imagine it right now. Energy storage and discharge like an electric eel, transparent structures abound, add in some bioluminescence and all it needs is cohesiveness light, which I'm sure evolution could figure out.

[@michaelprice3031]

They'd have to eat a lot though to maintain enough energy to operate it. Perhaps they would develop biological solar panels too?

[@kindlin]

@@michaelprice3031 It could come slowly from your metabolism, or more quickly if light sensitive skin cells started charging up those eel-like batteries.

[@qwertyasdf9290]

@@michaelprice3031 green zebras with chlorophyll

[@rhiannanmcdermott6631]

@@kindlin bn43 ^ 7

[@Petteri82]

Fun fact: Even if you are in bad shape or perhaps overweight, you are automatically one of the best long distance runners on the planet. Unless you aren't human, in which case your reading this is impressive.

[@somestranger175]

I'd disagree. A 350 pound fatball can't walk 50 feet, let alone a mile or so. The human respiratory system is pathetic, it can't support weight. I'm ~185lbs at 5'8 and I can't run at maximum speed for more than 0.5 mile

[@reubensenft1522]

@@somestranger175 long distance runner, not long distance sprinter

[@MannIchFindKeinName]

@@somestranger175 Sorry, but i disagree based on facts. edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/health/turning-points-mirna-valerio/index.html Its just one example, didnt find my original example, but there are plenty of indigenous runners that are fat for western standards, doing more kilometers a day than i move with bus in a whole week (jeah, work is pretty close

[@georgedunn320]

Good points all. Perhaps the image of a sumotori keeping up with a pronghorn is a bit ludicrous. It might be better to express "long distance runner" as "endurance predator." Though most quadripeds would leave humans in the dust in short races, our ancestors excelled in chases lasting several days, our only real challengers being the canids, particularly _lupus_ and _lycaon._ Upright bipedality means more of the musculature can be devoted to mobility as gravity is resisted by the bones; naked skin provided superior thermoregulation in hot climates; an omnivorous diet meant no need to spend hours browsing or grazing to restore energy and those peculiar primate feet (once well-toughened) could tackle a wide variety of terrain.

[@reiverdaemon]

@@somestranger175 Olympic level sprinters can't even maintain top speed in the 100m. Humans are about efficiency(endurance) not raw speed or strength.

[@livingcorpse5664]

No energy weapon evolution like lasers. Electric Eels: Am I joke to you?

[@Tophat-Turtle]

That's electricity my guy, that's quite normal in the animal kingdom

[@livingcorpse5664]

@@Tophat-Turtle Woosh.

[@Herodotus77]

I love this channel so much.

[@matthewtheobald1231]

"Survival of the Fittest" should be renamed to "Survival of the Good Enough"

[@ihopeicanchangethisnamelat7108]

“Survival of the Somewhat Mediocre”

[@Tururu134]

Survival of the barely able to survive

[@Yora21]

@@Tururu134 Literally the lowest bar imaginable.

[@matthhiasbrownanonionchopp3471]

"Survival of the 'I didn't due today'"

[@matthhiasbrownanonionchopp3471]

"Survival of the 'I didn't due today'"

[@abnorman541]

I, for one, welcome our new evolutionary superior Laser Zebra overlords.

[@davegoldspink5354]

😂🤣😂👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@emmagoff]

Better that Boris!

[@Chimailai]

@@emmagoff why do you have to get political?

[@emmagoff]

@@Chimailai it was just a comment made in humour, as was the comment I replied to. Don't let yourself get offended because none was meant 🙏

[@darthjarjarbinkstherealsit6832]

Yes.

[@alexmoon273]

I feel like this is different for us because we get to decide to a large extent which traits get passed on due to most people being able to reproduce regardless of potential harmful traits. Hell we literally did it with dogs, food, bacteria, etc.

[@bhavyagupta8195]

Wow! I didn't expected reference to "his dark material" here!

[@ninjaslash52_98]

I think the flying fish is one such example of evolution taking it up a notch

[@yellowstikbot6347]

I get it

[@theraefication]

and electric eels

[@asandax6]

Humans: Why hasn't evolution made zebras with Lasers. Evolution: You idiot I evolved you so you can make those things, Have you forgotten You are part of me?

[@pomtubes1205]

Wait, so evolution is god now? How the turn tables.

[@gamingcreatesworlddd2425]

@@pomtubes1205 evolution is adaptation generation after generation for many years

[@pomtubes1205]

@@gamingcreatesworlddd2425 I believe the earth is a cube. I don't comprehend.

[@pomtubes1205]

@Sir Slimy No... how can it be a donut if you can't eat it?

[@YokoX23]

@@pomtubes1205 actually you can eat it, just not the whole thing.... And it's better to eat the junk growing on the surface.

[@granolakitti8521]

With the same logic that rattet snakes "rattle parts" work, animals should be able to grow wheels. And if muscles, or other movable tissue, os correctly positioned inside they would be able to roll

[@adissentingopinion848]

Yeah, but the snake could get more effective with but a single grain of substance rattling in their tail. At least it wouldn't hurt, and it is ultimately not vital to survival. If you're gonna roll with wheels they have to be complete and be repairable from damage. The bones in our legs can mend themselves because they're surrounded with static flesh and tons of blood.

[@Ant3rn]

@@adissentingopinion848evolution is ok with non-repairable parts. What’s about teeth or limbs? A lion without teeth is pretty dead in wild. I would say wheels are not effective enough without roads ( durability, flexibility, speed ) to compete with good old legs.

[@SwordFastic]

how will they move the wheels?

[@Ant3rn]

@@SwordFastic any way. Pushing, like on wheelchair, more close to a steam train. It’s no more complicated than our eye or brain.

[@LineOfThy]

@@SwordFastic pushing with other limbs

[@TotalBS]

*Me, an African watching this video* Under my breath: "Oh good, they don't know about the laser Zebras..."

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

Let's just stare at bacterial flagella for a few hours and appreciate the one biological motor that does exist.

[@DoofusSupreme]

Maybe the one biological rotor? But I feel like you could call any muscle a biological motor, in a way. They just don't create rotational motion

[@zethwanner6755]

@@DoofusSupreme muscles are pistons

[@DoofusSupreme]

@@zethwanner6755 true

[@joshualuntsford]

Lol. My wife works for a lab in Colorado. She’s a lab scientist and she talks about bacterial flagella almost everyday. I have no idea wha she’s talking about

[@patrickhowden1601]

Smart comment. This yt guy “Its ok to be smart” LoL, doesn’t know about the flagella, otherwise he would have mentioned it. But then he would have to explain how it came about, and I don’t think he’s so smart that he could do that.

[@comedyfriendsenglish]

Dodos going extinct is the top 1 saddest death in anime

[@valinorean4816]

no that's reserved for dinos and pterosaurs

[@annedrieck7316]

@@valinorean4816 also trilobites and sea reptiles

[@valinorean4816]

@@annedrieck7316 and ammonites

[@asiantom4935]

my dad went extinct

[@raufanega7345]

@@asiantom4935 I'M SORRY FOR YOU

[@critic9]

So this is how evo firecracker came out 👏 👏 I now know that goblins will soon start shooting lasers

[@PokemonJacob-vi2li]

What kind of clash Royale nerf miner-esque meme comment is this?

[@LineOfThy]

mulefa are probably my favorite part of His Dark Materials. They look so different from us yet they blend so naturally.

[@robhacklblumstein]

"Why are there no giraffe-sized chickens?" Before about 66 million years ago, there were.

[@clobre_]

copied comment

[@yourprayersmeannothing]

@@clobre_ copied reply

[@wither5673]

@@clobre_ no one cares.

[@miss-jerk175]

You know I've never thought about human made technology like cars or wheels being under evolutionary pressure before, but that's totally what happens huh? It's why we don't use flip phones or beepers anymore, they were out competed by smart phones. It's a pretty interesting way to think about it

[@orinblank2056]

Yeah the market is subject to similar pressures as life is

[@danan9061]

Well flip phone is back because we realized it was actually awesome and now iys better since its also a smartphone

[@SlyNine]

Not exactly. They don't replicate, so in this context it wouldn't make sense.

[@mohammadsaleh1998]

@@SlyNine yeah but they can be replcated

[@lucyandecember2843]

o.o

[@lukewillett1151]

"Absolute unit" to describe the alien elephant is so funny

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

I like the ways you explain.

[@transientaardvark6231]

Another factor you didn't mention is "brittleness" (I think a term coined by Dawkins) - your hands and my hands are not exactly the same shape, but we both have hands that are ok as hands. A wheel cannot get very far from being perfectly circular before it is essentially useless - my collection of slightly warped bike wheels attests to that. So quite apart from the issue of damage-in-use, the peak that they sit on in evolutionary space has almost vertical sides - too steep to plausibly climb. All that said, there are microbes that use what may be called wheels or propellers, because the physics at small scale gives evolution a slightly different landscape to play on.

[@castonyoung7514]

Everything you just said is made up. Never tested by any experiment, just like most evolutionary theories. I guess you're going to make me get into all the ways the virtual simulations are useless now huh. Well, long story short by the time computers came around everybody had already made up their mind when it came to whether or not evolution was true. The only experiments that evolutionists cared about, were done to test whether or not computers could be used to simulate evolution, which they can (although I think the first study/studies actually failed). However, cartoon physics can also be simulated on a computer, it means nothing. Most evolution simulations that are made, simply aren't even considered finished until they simulate evolution. Ergo it's impossible that one could be used to determine that evolution is impossible since all of the problems have either been lessened or stripped away (for instance, by making every possible piece of genetic code equate to a functional neural network wherein only one or two triggers are needed to survive). I've wanted to make my own evolution simulator to actually test whether or not evolution is possible for a long time, unfortunately, it's one of those projects that appears to be too hard to ever get around to.

[@ClemensAlive]

Ok, so why is my body evolving a fat belly for me? That's clearly a loss in fitness. :(

[@bencui1045]

Because evolution didn’t account for excess food. Weight loss programs or just living with some belly fat are deemed “good enough” for humans to survive.

[@zukodude487987]

We evolved in a food scarce environment and we have only had an abundance of food for the last 100 years so we have not had enough time to adapt to this new age of abundance.

[@jarzez]

@@zukodude487987 An important thing to note here is that we most likely never will adapt to it either. At least not naturally. Basically we have created a society which doesn't actually require the human race's fitness to increase. The trend would logically even be the opposite, a decrease instead. Because in the society we have created normally the "lower class" births a lot more children than the more successful "upper class" families. Therefore over time increasing the prevalence of genes that actually don't "succeed" as well in our society (career wise and such).

[@pcmasterracetechgod5660]

@@jarzez There is no need to adapt, if people used their brains that we've evolved so much, they wouldn't become obese and would work out, be healthy, and live longer lives. We already have evolved in terms of nutrition, it's people's own will and decisions that leads to obesity, not a flaw in evolution

[@jarzez]

@@pcmasterracetechgod5660 Well, I dont necessarily disagree with you that people are overall not thinking about the health consequences enough. But you can easily argue that it is our current state of evolution that causes the majority of population to live unhealthy lives and make unhealthy decision. It's not like evolution and our decisions are unrelated, quite the opposite. Our brain is simply not evolved to naturally make healthy life choices in our current society. If it was, then we wouldnt have obesity for example.

[@lotfi2631]

My very first look at this channel and i'm welcome with "why tigers don't have wheels and lasers" followed by "it's okay to be smart" Grandpa once told that smart people will never say that they're smart , he'll always be right

[@eddyyt7466]

Your English is slightly broken and I can’t understand what you mean by this comment

[@Wix_Mitwirth]

In your examples of odd-numbered limbed animals the extra is the tail. Is a tail a limb? It's part of the spine, the trunk, not a branch off of the trunk. Since it's usually added on beyond the pelvis I suppose it still counts as an appendage. What's the name of that thing on the top of corn stalks?

[@GroundThing]

"Are snakes one limbed animals?" Please no. I didn't want to think about that today, and now I can't get it out of my head.

[@keithfaulkner6319]

Boas, pythons, and pipe snakes have rear limbs. They're just tiny, but they're there.

[@KryssLaBryn]

it's okay; tails aren't *limbs* (even when they're used for propulsion); they're mobile extensions of the spine.

[@khumokwezimashapa2245]

The snakes are the limbs

[@skknireeker9073]

Is a head a limb? No snakes have no limbs, just body/torso and head

[@GradientExe]

take five snakes and put them together now you have the snake king

[@RocketJo86]

You totally forgot to mention one curcially important thing on fitness: Fitness isn't determined by your survival rate, but by your reproduction. So going for something like Laser Zebras, it would be possible that a Zebra lives long enough to mate and give birth with a specific trait that may or may not lead to a laser organ in the long term. As long as their offspring can succsessfully mate and give birth again, the trait can be spread, solidified and further evolve over time. That's basically the reason, why hammer toes (hallux valgus) exist in humans or why we haven't outbred cancer or chorea huntington. The genes that lead to those phenotypes do so a bit after our reproduction age. People with the genetic dispositon for cancer or chorea huntington, f.e., can successfully produce offspring, as the "diseases" occur in their higher years (mid-thirties onwards). Hallux Valgus, with is a condition in which your biggest toe moves inward in a painful process, which may leave you unable to walk, if not treated, begins mostly after the menopause (or around the same time in men, but I think it's more common in women, correct me, if I'm wrong). But the trait can pass on and actually is about to solidify in certain lineages, as it doesn't lower your reproduction rate. And in this case, one offspring (or a set of non-phenotypically coding genes or a heterozygotous inheritance like albinism f.e.) is all evolution needs in the long run. Strange hands, which can become wings, however, won't necessarily lower your survival rate (as humans tend to keep those alive, who are close to them. Especially when they are helpful in other ways), but I can guess it would lower their reproduction rate, because how many people would mate with someone with bat-hands? Or as my biology professor once put it: Humans love strawberries. If there where one person to have strawberry-shaped, -colored and -tasting ears, it would have major sucess finding mates. So there would be some children with strawberry-ears, who in turn would have big success in finding mates and some generations onward, strawberry-ears would be a perfectly normal trait in humans. Evolution isn't logical, it isn't goal-oriented, but pretty situational and sometimes astonishingly complex.

[@npc4416]

good point but sadly only a few will read this 😔

[@spicemelange8895]

Yess, thank you for pointing this out bc it's a crucial factor in the development of wings. Not many ppl would be excited to mate with someone who has an early phenotype for batwings, regardless of how cool the concept that their great grand kids might be able to fly. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) higher degrees of consciousness gets in the way of the evolutionary process when it comes to selective breeding. Granted, many animals out there share our disposition against mating with others who look very different than us species wise but I get the strong impression that such hesitance is exacerbated the more sentient and self aware you become. Especially once you factor In human notions of traditionalism/ religion that would make such action a social taboo

[@jclive2860]

Yep, being able to reproduce the most means that you’re the fittest. That’s literally what survival of the fittest means in biology. Im ashamed many people think it means the animal is simply the strongest or the smartest.

[@shientioh4865]

So what your saying is that we need to make cancer happen earlier to phase it out of our dna

[@LoverboyTousey]

No sex for plebs!!!!

[@MOSMASTERING]

Was convinced for a moment that you had said "pangolins" as Benedict Cumberbatch trying to say "Penguins". I can't believe he narrated an entire nature documentary about Penguins but can't say "Penguins"... amazing!

[@subscribetovadorcreations]

i'll prove every single of these wrong by evolving them on me

[@dougthedonkey1805]

“You can’t evolve anything that reduces your fitness” Babirusa: hold my beer

[@MrIrrationalSmith]

Type 1 diabetes: hold my insulin

[@gorilladisco9108]

The fitness theory is flawed. Evolution is about ability to survive, not ability to excel. As long as a mutation does not kill before the mutant can breed, the evolution happens. Your babirusa example is one that refute that theory. Another example is the sickle cell mutation in Sub Saharan people. Both made the mutants less fit.

[@dougthedonkey1805]

@@gorilladisco9108 the sickle cell mutation is actually to combat malaria. As a recessive gene, it offers protection at the risk of your children possibly dying if your partner has the gene as well. Instead of nearly 100% of your children dying from malaria, about 25% will have both genes and die, about 50% will have one out of two and be malaria-resistant while also not displaying sickle cell anemia, and about 25% will not have any anemia genes and will likely die of malaria. I’m sure there’s more at play than just the Eighth Grade Punnet Square™, but this is a simplified version of what happens that gets the point across well enough

[@gorilladisco9108]

@@dougthedonkey1805 It indeed made the mutant less fit than the normal version of the species.

[@dougthedonkey1805]

@@gorilladisco9108 did you read what I said?

[@TheAutobotPower]

*Fish with propellers is impossible* 200 millions years in the future: Flish.

[@NurseSnow2U]

Hmm...is your username coincidental?! Tell us what you know!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@BJCMXY]

Those are fish with wings...entirely different dynamic... "The Future is Wild" was a fun thought experiment.

[@BJCMXY]

@@greenxmango8049 Technically they already exist, but they lack the genetic mutation accumulations to become what is outlined in that short series... also, if you're logging into things with the same email on multiple services, & don't have privacy settings that tell the various data loggers to ignore you, then obviously you're going to find a lot more "coincidental" things as it's financially appealing to those that employ the data loggers, since they get rewarded for snooping & suggesting. I know Firefox isn't the best browser out there in terms of resource management, but it certainly does a decent job of blocking those data loggers when surfing the internet. For the apps that you use, many have an opt-out section.

[@korniminorni780]

actually laughed out loud

[@Usual_User]

Oh yes, of course.. the FLISH

[@brandonshelp4682]

This is super fun, because I'm trying to mentally justify how these things could evolve 😂

[@amiraljrah1584]

Loving this show

[@heronb.4965]

I swear the moment you said "aren't dolphins three-limbed animals?" my brain broke

[@pseudodao7040]

If you inhale glue before bed, your brain will seal back while you sleep.

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

Some have 5!

[@MarlowPreston]

@@pseudodao7040 Warning, side effects may include but are not limited to, clogged sinuses, coughing, difficulty breathing, and death.

[@pseudodao7040]

@@MarlowPreston so inhaling glue leads to covid? Whaaaat?

[@Kurayamiblack]

@@pseudodao7040 So that's what China was doing... No wonder they tried to hide it, that's embarrassing

[@ryokajimosensei2780]

Still waiting for a legit dragon to evolve itself to reality

[@yachiyous9110]

I'd say a flying reptile would be a good start, just add some snout, make it stand a bit upright and increase the size. Maybe add a skunk or bombardier beetle defense mechanism on its mouth for the fire breathing effect

[@jackmcavaney6565]

Aye yo we got draco lizards look them up they are sick as hell the lil homies got wings

[@NurseSnow2U]

@@jackmcavaney6565 they do be having wings though. But their size makes them sort of adorable. Multiply that by like x100 and shits gonna get really real, really fast 🤣

[@maxthexpfarmer3957]

It's very difficult for a genuinely large and strong animal to fly.

[@rasmuswi]

@@yachiyous9110 I'd say one of the real obstacles for true fire-breathing would be producing some adequate amounts of some combustible substance. Not impossible, but it would require lots of energy, so the animal would have to eat LOTS of food. That fire would basically have to help the animal to find lots of food to be viable.

[@ztoogemcducc6360]

I think I know how to solve the disconnected wheel issue. A lot of animals grow things that fall off or get discarded. For example species of deer shed their horns, sharks lose and regrow teeth, reptiles molt. A wheeled animal could be possible if the wheel starts as a connected growth but after a certain point falls off. The key is that the wheel is grown around a central structure so once it does detatch it can spin around that.

[@qownson4410]

I'm actually surprised some kind of aquatic creature hasn't created a laser yet? Like a low power series of bio luminescent organs focused by transparent lenses or membranes.

[@faesommers]

the phrase “forbidden phenotypes” is just so funny to me

[@Malaima]

it is! it is like forbidden pleasures but in a deliciously quirky because naughty-intelligent way!

[@smaakjeks]

Sounds like a prog rock band

[@yoboijerry5519]

Most of this vid is fake Christ is the answer, if there was evaluation how come there are still monkeys

[@smaakjeks]

@@yoboijerry5519 If Americans descended from British colonists, how come there are still British people?

[@SuperDUD66]

Sounds like the overpowered skins all of the anime cast is aiming for.

[@MidnightSt]

People for evolution of human wings: give evolution a reason; Make floor actual lava!

[@sumreensultana1860]

Or just Code it into our DNA

[@Eldritch-1]

@@sumreensultana1860 Crispr-9 is going to make it possible.. soon, all the old fools need to go die off first though.

[@xRakanishu]

Then everyone dies because that's not how evolution works

[@The_Blue_Otaku]

imagen if the next stage of humans evolved with monkey tails... what I'm just Saiyan ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@cerobalam]

Or make a vehicle to counter lava.

[@kamo7293]

5:16 this is what I though of when I saw the video title and thumbnail. what kind of environment would be necessary for zebras to develop lasers?

[@alexdurgan7629]

Very interesting, a bit more subtle but a zebra could evolve a defensive horn .like a rhino, also used for unearthing roots for food.

[@matias6449]

"plant eating snakes" I thought he was talking about plants that eat snakes lol. that would be dope

[@rolfs2165]

Pitcher plants can do that - if a snake happens to fall into them.

[@Xelaria]

The plant would not be a vegetarian then.

[@MrKfleong]

@@Xelaria and there is some plants that are carnivorous, thank evolution

[@gabor6259]

Venus flytrap.

[@misterskeleton_yt7854]

@@gabor6259 a native organism of venus

[@kirandeepchakraborty7921]

Wow... Nicely Explained ❤

[@sarenarterius6217]

What is impossible in evolution? Nothing. You only need the correct evolution stone and a couple of good TM's.

[@dermenschistweilesglaubtda41]

we just need to keep playing "the floor is lava" this will be the selection pressure that we have to adapt to AND WE WILL FLY

[@zerospeed1498]

@Smit Shilpatul facts

[@bronbust4797]

We can just make a competitive sport for flying and only the hindret best people are allowed to mate. Just making evolution artificial.

[@sapateirovalentin348]

YAYYY EUGENISM ! WOOOOOOO!!!

[@Vi-pv3xi]

There is something called genetic engineering. It is much faster than evolution or artificial selection. Maybe we can reduce the density of human bones and reduce or eliminate fat tissue so that humans weight is decreased. And also maybe we can strengthen our chest muscle through genetic engineering. And then we don't need to genetic engineer the wings. Just put artificial wings on and then you are ready to fly. But remember kids the answer to "Is this ethical?" is "Yes".

[@JustAlex96]

We would just go back to regular ole monkeys who are very good at climbing things :(

[@stefanospinelli9636]

Me and my homies: "why animals have no wheels???" The smart guy: "well, to start you should know that in Mesopotamia they used to have chariots..."

[@Spacebar33]

Genuinely funny

[@johntuel2375]

I remember renting the return to oz as a kid and thinking "this is not even remotely close to what I was expecting" haha

[@IxiaClover]

i reckon you could get natural wheels on an animal by some process where the wheel grows as hard dead skin such as nails, hair etc then because it's dead it falls off the axel, thus being able to turn on it... but you're right about it not necessarily being a useful trait especially as tarmac roads are hardly natural occurrences

[@catoninetales]

Alternate title: Why there are no real-life pokemon. WHERE'S MY POKEMON, EVOLUTION???

[@abugonapugonamugonarug1653]

Would you rather be a Pokémon master or the King/Queen of the Earth

[@mr.penguin8301]

@@abugonapugonamugonarug1653 Pojemon master so I could become king of the earth... because I'd be the only one alive.

[@isaz2425]

they exist, they are called animals. But we're just missing the pokeballs.

[@mr.penguin8301]

@@isaz2425 You know, we can just tame animals so the need for Pokeballs is unexistant, although the risk is considerably higher.

[@isaz2425]

@@mr.penguin8301 true, but it's much less cool without the pokeballs.

[@gljames24]

Actually, from what I've heard, they've found out our eyes actually benefit from the nerves routing backwards. There are fiberoptic like filaments that filter out a lot of the blue light that tends to dominate on the land. In the ocean you don't want to reduce the amount light because you take all you can get.

[@StrayChoom]

Don’t care to watch the video, but just wanted to comment the thumbnail is one of the best thumbnails I’ve ever seen 😂

[@RavenFilms]

Return to Oz was awesome! I loved that movie, but the hall of the heads where the witch switched them was “too scary” according to my parents so they cut that part out of my tape.

[@xen32]

"Hey smart people, Joe here" - JOE I NEED THIS PLEASE

[@nagaprabhashetty8011]

OMG YESS

[@ViratKohli-jj3wj]

We are not smart people anymore

[@jayantanayak4981]

Me: Yeah!! I Missed that too... Joe: Let's make a new video on "When regular things doesn't happen..."

[@sadcad8118]

ʕಠ_ಠʔ

[@duderyandude9515]

1:49 I like the idea of a young Joe having nightmares wherein he sleep-talks and says “No wheelies! Biology doesn’t allow for members of the animal kingdom to have wheels. It’s scientifically impossible! Ah!”

[@brodriguez11000]

Bacteria rotate their flagella.

[@maciekzieba8707]

Lol I dont have to "unroll" my arm I can keep swinging it in one direction

[@Shadowbaneado]

It isn't a wheel​@@brodriguez11000

[@Natu_Visu]

8:00 In certain cases, you *can* move downhill. If there are changes to the animal's habitat that make certain features useless, they can begin to de-evolve, or evolve into something else, as it is more efficient to not grow the unneeded features, or to turn them into something useful.

[@TheAnimatorSloth]

Nice reference to the best book ever