Just had a crazy thought/ Idea

VLRD.Kush

VLRD.Kush

Well-Known Member
So what if the reason why scientist keep finding new animals and species all the time is bc of micro-organisms that came from meteors evolved. Basically they are aliens.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
The trouble with the idea is that every organism so far examined appears to come from a single common ancestor. If true xenobes (non-terrestrial life forms) were integrating into the biosphere, we should see many many organisms that don't fit into a unitary cladistic tree. but we don't, so the chances of it being real are slim to none as far as we know now.
Don't get me wrong ... imo it would be extraordinarily cool to find an actual xenobe or descendant therefrom. Or even a living thing that evolved on Earth, parallel to but separate from the current "tree of life". cn
 
merkzilla

merkzilla

Active Member
cannabineer said:
The trouble with the idea is that every organism so far examined appears to come from a single common ancestor. If true xenobes (non-terrestrial life forms) were integrating into the biosphere, we should see many many organisms that don't fit into a unitary cladistic tree. but we don't, so the chances of it being real are slim to none as far as we know now.
Don't get me wrong ... imo it would be extraordinarily cool to find an actual xenobe or descendant therefrom. Or even a living thing that evolved on Earth, parallel to but separate from the current "tree of life". cn
Click to expand...
^ I'm in a bio class and this pretty much is covered in the part 1.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/27/animal-ancestor.html
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
The trouble with the idea is that every organism so far examined appears to come from a single common ancestor. If true xenobes (non-terrestrial life forms) were integrating into the biosphere, we should see many many organisms that don't fit into a unitary cladistic tree. but we don't, so the chances of it being real are slim to none as far as we know now.
Don't get me wrong ... imo it would be extraordinarily cool to find an actual xenobe or descendant therefrom. Or even a living thing that evolved on Earth, parallel to but separate from the current "tree of life". cn
Click to expand...
So true, and very little is known about the evolution of virus and prion. It does seem, I've read, that some of human dna is ancient virus encoding.

They can act as markers, help sort out the evolutionary trails. Kinda makes me wonder. Is consciousness a disease? We know there are rocks from Mars laying around. Prions are especially hardy.
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
There are Martian-source meteorites, and one of them caused quite a stir for containing structures originally identified as microfossils. But that hypothesis didn't stand up to extended scrutiny.
As for prions, they are a unique family of pathogens ... a wrong-folded protein that catalyzes its formation from the right-folded protein. It's not a disease organism so much as a nucleator of phase change.

Is consciousness a disease? It's an engaging question, but softened by the near-certainty that many positively adaptive and heritable traits started out as diseases, or disease responses. cn
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
cannabineer said:
There are Martian-source meteorites, and one of them caused quite a stir for containing structures originally identified as microfossils. But that hypothesis didn't stand up to extended scrutiny.
As for prions, they are a unique family of pathogens ... a wrong-folded protein that catalyzes its formation from the right-folded protein. It's not a disease organism so much as a nucleator of phase change.

Is consciousness a disease? It's an engaging question, but softened by the near-certainty that many positively adaptive and heritable traits started out as diseases, or disease responses. cn
Click to expand...
Yes, prions bend the difinition of "alive." The are very hard to distroy. Alzhimers and Mad Cow show that, like virus, prions can replicate. 1/2 alive, half biological contamination. Where did they come from?

I totally agree except I'd say the argument is "hardened.' I meant that with a bit of whimsy, of course, but as you say, disease response has been a main shaping force. We think of evolution as we are the guys that zigged when the Saber Cat zagged. But, this line we are discussing has some marvelous implications.

Virus as part the consciousness uplift? The actual Missing Link?
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Doer said:
Yes, prions bend the difinition of "alive." The are very hard to distroy. Alzhimers and Mad Cow show that, like virus, prions can replicate. 1/2 alive, half biological contamination. Where did they come from?

I totally agree except I'd say the argument is "hardened.' I meant that with a bit of whimsy, of course, but as you say, disease response has been a main shaping force. We think of evolution as we are the guys that zigged when the Saber Cat zagged. But, this line we are discussing has some marvelous implications.

Virus as part the consciousness uplift? The actual Missing Link?
Click to expand...
I would not say prions replicate in the manner of living things, or half-living ones like viruses. But this (see link) behavior does have some lifelike qualities, so all told I agree that they bend the definition. cn

http://scitechstory.com/2009/12/31/prions-not-alive-but-they-can-evolve/
 
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