Would stepping on the first butterfly really change the history of evolution?

Phys.org ^ | 03/29/18 | Jordi Paps

[KC_Lion]

[Redcitizen]

If it gets stepped on, then it wasn’t the fittest.

[wbarmy]

The scientists used the DNA of the various spider species to reconstruct the history of how they evolved. They showed that the dark spiders and the white spiders have repeatedly evolved from ancestral gold spiders, six times in the case of the dark spiders and twice in the case of the white ones.

This is just as bad as climate science. The scientists make the assumption that the stick spiders evolved from the gold spiders, then postulate how often there would have to mutations to get from the gold spider to the stick spider. This gives them a time frame, and viola, they have proof of evolution.

But they still have no proof that the stick came from the gold. Jut like Darwin's finches, they are still finches, and if stuck in the same cage with the others, they will breed. They are not different species, the DNA did not change, they still have the same number of chromosomes.

[Dacula]

What about Steppenwolf?

Could be a magic carpet ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPE9a_epmWw

[blueunicorn6]

Great Flaming Wolf Spiders!!!

[Disambiguator]

If you travel back in time, step on collectivists, not butterflies. Stamp out small-L liberalism!

[Bob434]

why step on butterflies when you can step on spotted owls instead?

[bk1000]

If a time traveler did something in the past that dramatically altered the present as we know it, only the time traveler would be aware that anything was different. For all we know this may have already happened. Witness the unlikely defeat of Hillary Clinton.

[dainbramaged]

Reminds one of a Ray Bradbury story.

[dfwgator]

If a time traveler did something in the past that dramatically altered the present as we know it, only the time traveler would be aware that anything was different. For all we know this may have already happened. Witness the unlikely defeat of Hillary Clinton.

Maybe Hillary could have disappeared like in "Back To The Future".

[Slyfox]

I doubt whether stepping on one butterfly would have changed anything.

Adam and Eve had a whole garden to explore and at that time they wouldn't have thought to hurt another of God's creatures.

[Vaquero]

‘A Sound Of Thunder’. One of my favorite Bradbury short stories.

I really enjoyed the take on it by a Simpson Halloween special 5. “Time and Punishment “.

[bioqubit]

even though you have special effects like people disappearing in photos, the opposite would be true. Records of events and events are separate from each other.

You would have the case of finding a written record that is entirely factual of something that “never” took place.

[exDemMom]

Actually, it is a fairly straightforward process to construct a phylogenetic tree and determine what traits the original population had, and traits of descendent populations. The process works so well that you do not even need to know which DNA sequences come from the parent population. Once you run the analysis, you know exactly which sequence came from the original, and the order in which the child populations emerged.

The techniques of evolutionary biology are used a lot, in many contexts.

[Olog-hai]

Would stepping on the first butterfly really change the history of evolution? …

Can’t change the “history” of something that never happened. And “first butterfly”, really? Genesis 1:20-25 makes it plain that multiples of each species were created.

[PLMerite]

Try to step on this butterfly:

[P.O.E.]

Someday giant butterflies will land from outer space and step on YOU. See how you like it.

[HarleyD]

How do they know stepping on the butterfly was bad? Perhaps that butterfly might have spawned the next Mothra?

Time travel movies are fun to watch but impossible to take seriously.

[Larry Lucido]

What if Archduke Ferdinand shot back? What if Lincoln shot back?