True or False? Animals will progressively get smaller as time goes by

[Patrick Chewing]

With shrinking habitats and extinction rates, it is safe to assume that smaller animals (i.e. Raccoons, lemurs, capuchins, etc..) will survive longer due to their diminutive size as opposed to (i.e. Elephants, polar bears, tigers, giraffes, rhinos, etc.)

I remember watching a documentary on the extinction of the dinosaurs, and one of theories was that some of the dinosaurs were just too big and eventually ran out of sustainable food, therefore the bigger of the dinosaurs died out, while the smaller ones remained for a few more millennia till they eventually evolved into other animals that we are more familiar with.

In conclusion, we can assume from this example that perhaps some bears or species of animals will eventually evolve into smaller species depending on their habitat. There is some research already showing that polar bears are smaller, but it's inconclusive.

What do we think ISH? Are we seeing this already happen due to the shrinking habitat?

[Nanners]

i dont see how this would be possible considering that evolution is a hoax created by satan to test our faith in the bible.

[TripleA]

With shrinking habitats and extinction rates, it is safe to assume that smaller animals (i.e. Raccoons, lemurs, capuchins, etc..) will survive longer due to their diminutive size as opposed to (i.e. Elephants, polar bears, tigers, giraffes, rhinos, etc.)

I remember watching a documentary on the extinction of the dinosaurs, and one of theories was that some of the dinosaurs were just too big and eventually ran out of sustainable food, therefore the bigger of the dinosaurs died out, while the smaller ones remained for a few more millennia till they eventually evolved into other animals that we are more familiar with.

In conclusion, we can assume from this example that perhaps some bears or species of animals will eventually evolve into smaller species depending on their habitat. There is some research already showing that polar bears are smaller, but it's inconclusive.

What do we think ISH? Are we seeing this already happen due to the shrinking habitat?

Not yet it takes 1000s of years not decades for that to happen.

[TripleA]

Their many factors that caused animals to become smaller to this day. One theory is that Oxygen was much more abundant back than causing animals to grow larger.

[warriorfan]

With shrinking habitats and extinction rates, it is safe to assume that smaller animals (i.e. Raccoons, lemurs, capuchins, etc..) will survive longer due to their diminutive size as opposed to (i.e. Elephants, polar bears, tigers, giraffes, rhinos, etc.)

I remember watching a documentary on the extinction of the dinosaurs, and one of theories was that some of the dinosaurs were just too big and eventually ran out of sustainable food, therefore the bigger of the dinosaurs died out, while the smaller ones remained for a few more millennia till they eventually evolved into other animals that we are more familiar with.

In conclusion, we can assume from this example that perhaps some bears or species of animals will eventually evolve into smaller species depending on their habitat. There is some research already showing that polar bears are smaller, but it's inconclusive.

What do we think ISH? Are we seeing this already happen due to the shrinking habitat?

:roll:

you know how long evolution takes to make those changes? the changes that man have made is less than a blink in the eye in respect to the history of living things. the rate species are going extinct is far greater than the time evolution takes to change a population of creatures. the animals will completely die out before any sort of evolutional changes come into play.

[Patrick Chewing]

:roll:

you know how long evolution takes to make those changes? the changes that man have made is less than a blink in the eye in respect to the history of living things. the rate species are going extinct is far greater than the time evolution takes to change a population of creatures. the animals will completely die out before any sort of evolutional changes come into play.


Wow, you're Mr. Doom and Gloom. So you're saying that all animals will die out before we see any evolutionary changes of size??

[JohnnySic]

Sadly, large mammals aren't doing well. :cry:

But the small ones are more than holding their own. They dont need much space and can live in close proximity to humans.

[Goro]

Or maybe populations will just fluctuate rather than the size of the animals :confusedshrug:

[Akrazotile]

:roll:

you know how long evolution takes to make those changes? the changes that man have made is less than a blink in the eye in respect to the history of living things. the rate species are going extinct is far greater than the time evolution takes to change a population of creatures. the animals will completely die out before any sort of evolutional changes come into play.


Evolution to an entirely different species takes many millenia at the least. Minor characteristics of a particular species can change in response to the environment fairly quickly. Humans, for instance, have made a relatively significant increase in height since the industrial revolution just a couple hundred years ago.


In any case it is in fact very sad that these large wildlife species which took millions of years to develop their unique biological features are rapidly dying out. They wont be back. Extinction IS forever as they say. And for what? Because 7 billion people is not enough?

[Patrick Chewing]

My marine biology teacher once told me that humans would evolve to have bigger heads. I suspect this is true as our technological and scientific knowledge increases day by day. Eventually, we will not have enough brain matter to support such advances, therefore evolution will kick in and our heads will be the size of beach balls with really big eyes. My only concern is how gravity may affect our posture with so much weight now above our shoulders.

[KNOW1EDGE]

Haven't all animals, including humans, progressively grown bigger/faster/stronger as time has gone on?

Def not smaller.

[KyrieTheFuture]

Evolution to an entirely different species takes many millenia at the least. Minor characteristics of a particular species can change in response to the environment fairly quickly. Humans, for instance, have made a relatively significant increase in height since the industrial revolution just a couple hundred years ago.


In any case it is in fact very sad that these large wildlife species which took millions of years to develop their unique biological features are rapidly dying out. They wont be back. Extinction IS forever as they say. And for what? Because 7 billion people is not enough?
That's not evolution it's abundance of food. That's why poorer countries are still short, and why NK is the shortest in the world.


Haven't all animals, including humans, progressively grown bigger/faster/stronger as time has gone on?

Def not smaller.

You can't be serious.

[CavaliersFTW]

People shouldn't assume scientific things on ISH.

Human brains have been progressively getting smaller since about the time of the Neanderthal species existed. They had bigger heads/brains than us. So did early Homo sapiens.

So for the past several hundred thousand years hominid aka human brains (be it our species or Neanderthal) have been on a gradual downward curve in size. Going from about 1600cc in size on average, to something like 1200.

I'd imagine there will always be a hard limit on human head size anyways and perhaps they reached it at their zenith several hundred to fifty thousand years ago. You see, a baby needs to be born out of a pelvis sized hole and it's head needs to fit. Either the babies head needs to be softer and even less developed upon birth, or pelvis size needs to increase. But neither of those things are likely without some sort of hard outside pressure to do so as one implies longer even more vulnerable childhood development and humans are already insanely useless as babies relatively speaking in the animal kingdom and we're that way for many additional years. And the other implies less adult mobility (less likely to avoid certain dangers to ensure your child develops). As far as we can see today, the trend is still drifting to gradually smaller heads/skulls/brains. For whatever reasons now a days nothing is preventing people with smaller heads/brains/skulls from surviving until reproduction age and nothing is giving people with bigger heads/brains/skulls some clear competitive edge in survival until reproduction age to the same degree that was happening fifty to several hundred thousand years ago.

There has to be pressure for evolution to make significant or rapid changes. Heck, our gradually shrinking head size might not even be caused by pressure, but rather a lack of pressure to maintain a difficult-to-birth physiology. Since now the gradually-smaller head humans can figure out how to survive without being eaten by a cave bear and other prehistoric predators that no longer exist it could be simple gradual genetic drift that our average head size is reducing.

[LikeMike]

My marine biology teacher once told me that humans would evolve to have bigger heads. I suspect this is true as our technological and scientific knowledge increases day by day. Eventually, we will not have enough brain matter to support such advances, therefore evolution will kick in and our heads will be the size of beach balls with really big eyes. My only concern is how gravity may affect our posture with so much weight now above our shoulders.

Maybe we'll just develop deeper gyrus.

[Akrazotile]

That's not evolution it's abundance of food. That's why poorer countries are still short, and why NK is the shortest in the world.


Which is why I worded it as "minor characteristics can change in response to the environment." It's entirely possible this will happen as well for small animals that live in areas humans habitate. Maybe not in any obviously noticeable and important ways, but they may be changing in response to us, who knows.

Anyway the important issue is the extinction of large species. These things are literally unique natural artwork millions of years in the making. And we're allowing them to be wiped out permanently :(

[CavaliersFTW]

Haven't all animals, including humans, progressively grown bigger/faster/stronger as time has gone on?

Def not smaller.
No. Evolution is about capacity for surviving momentary conditions to reproduction age.

Not being bigger, faster, or stronger.

[!@#$%Vectors!@#]

People shouldn't assume scientific things on ISH.

Human brains have been progressively getting smaller since about the time of the Neanderthal species existed. They had bigger heads/brains than us. So did early Homo sapiens.

So for the past several hundred thousand years hominid aka human brains (be it our species or Neanderthal) have been on a gradual downward curve in size. Going from about 1600cc in size on average, to something like 1200.

I'd imagine there will always be a hard limit on human head size anyways and perhaps they reached it at their zenith several hundred to fifty thousand years ago. You see, a baby needs to be born out of a pelvis sized hole and it's head needs to fit. Either the babies head needs to be softer and even less developed upon birth, or pelvis size needs to increase. But neither of those things are likely without some sort of hard outside pressure to do so as one implies longer even more vulnerable childhood development and humans are already insanely useless as babies relatively speaking in the animal kingdom and we're that way for many additional years. And the other implies less adult mobility (less likely to avoid certain dangers to ensure your child develops). As far as we can see today, the trend is still drifting to gradually smaller heads/skulls/brains. For whatever reasons now a days nothing is preventing people with smaller heads/brains/skulls from surviving until reproduction age and nothing is giving people with bigger heads/brains/skulls some clear competitive edge in survival until reproduction age to the same degree that was happening fifty to several hundred thousand years ago.

There has to be pressure for evolution to make significant or rapid changes. Heck, our gradually shrinking head size might not even be caused by pressure, but rather a lack of pressure to maintain a difficult-to-birth physiology. Since now the gradually-smaller head humans can figure out how to survive without being eaten by a cave bear and other prehistoric predators that no longer exist it could be simple gradual genetic drift that our average head size is reducing.


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