Beneficial Evolutionary Traits

[DepricatedZero]

So last night I had one of those weird shower thoughts.

How do beneficial evolutionary traits occur "intentionally"? The example that came to mind is Sauropods. Growing up I always remember reading about or hearing on this documentary or that, how Sauropods had developed long necks so that they could reach the tops of trees to eat.

I don't see how this could be the case - and I could see this being used as a creationist argument (maybe it already is). Right now, I wouldn't be properly armed to dismiss such a question. I simply don't know. So I'm asking here, if any of you know how that works?

As I understand it, some traits evolve as a result of the creature's environment. The example that comes to mind here is the peppered moth. When the light coloration of their camouflage stopped working, the light ones were eaten and the darker ones survived, passing on their pattern so that they're now very dark. Beneficial, but no moths designed it this way.

I don't think sauropods were going "man I really want those tree stars" and having offspring with longer necks until they were able to reach the tops of the trees. And maybe my example is bad, I haven't done my homework on sauropods specifically, but the question I think is still a valid one.

I hope that made sense.

 

[Inferno]

Actually, this one of those "environment" things again.

Imagine the following scenario: All animals and all plants are small, around 50cm high. Some plants begin to grow to a size where they can't be reached by the animals, let's say 100cm. With all the animals competing for the food at 50cm, one with a slightly longer neck might be able to eat plants at 60cm. That gives the individual an advantage, (s)he's more likely to reproduce because (s)he doesn't need to fear having no food, there's no competition.
Eventually, the gene for slightly longer necks becomes fixed, now all animals are at roughly 60cm. Then a new individual has a slightly longer neck still, let's say it can reach 70cm. And so on and so forth.

The problem isn't with the science, the problem is with how it's phrased. Sometimes, scientists unconsciously talk about organisms as if they want to evolve, that is they impart them with motives and intentionality. That's the way we use language, but it doesn't mean that the animals actually want one thing or another.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Dave B.]

How do beneficial evolutionary traits occur "intentionally"?

They don't. You're looking at it backwards. The sauropods didn't evolve longer necks so they could eat from the tops of trees. They were able to eat from the tops of trees because they evolved longer necks.

You see this mistake made a lot in the media and, unfortunately, even in journals.

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about:

http://phys.org/news/2014-06-interbreeding-monkeys-undergone-evolution-facial.html

This article makes it sound as if the monkeys consciously evolved these traits so that they could avoid interbreeding. The first sentence in the article is an example of exactly the type of misunderstanding that people have about evolution and why most people don't accept it as a valid theory:

'Old World monkeys have undergone a remarkable evolution in facial appearance as a way of avoiding interbreeding with closely related and geographically proximate species..."

To the layman this makes it sound like the monkeys were responsible for their own evolution. To those of us who understand evolution we know what they're trying to say but it is incredibly painful to see it explained in this manner.

Hope this helps!

 

[DepricatedZero]

Both of those answers helped! That's exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. Thank you guys!

Yea I was looking at it backwards. Quite literally. I hadn't connected the initial rise of plant life to the initial rise of other life. I mean, in so far as the way Inferno described it. I knew it had to be environmentally driven - cause I know evolution doesn't work by wishful thinking. And exactly right, the phrasing is what threw me - it had got me on the line of thinking that somehow the genes "knew" there would be plants higher up that they could eat (thus, literally backwards), which just didn't make sense in my mind. The logical problem was driving me nuts.

I knew someone would know what was wrong in my logic. Thanks!

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

How do beneficial evolutionary traits occur "intentionally"? The example that came to mind is Sauropods. Growing up I always remember reading about or hearing on this documentary or that, how Sauropods had developed long necks so that they could reach the tops of trees to eat.

Phrasing it like that is essentially phrasing it as if Lamarckian evolution were true. Everyone else has pointed out why this is wrong, so I will not belabor the point.