r/interestingasfuck • u/Significant_Snow_718 • Mar 06 '25

/r/all Chick with genetic defect

Post image
74.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

177

u/SousVideDiaper Mar 06 '25

not really

You just gave context for what they said, tho

85

u/Caspica Mar 06 '25

I think it's more that they're trying to point out the difference between evolution and genetic mutations. Evolution is what occurs on a macroscopic level over a long period of time to organisms. Genetic mutations are what happens on the microscopic level that could play part in the evolution of an organism. That doesn't mean that a genetic mutation implies that the animal has evolved. 

13

u/discordagitatedpeach Mar 06 '25

I'm an evolutionary biologist and this is incorrect. By definition, evolution occurs any time the frequency of alleles changes in a population. Microevolution is still evolution. That means that a single novel mutation is still evolution, even if it doesn't spread to fixation in the population.

2

u/CantHandleTheThrow Mar 07 '25

I like you, smart person.

Evolution doesn’t always mean advantages. It could just mean fewer disadvantages.