Evolution can't explain butterfly evolving from caterpillar
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Claim
Evolution can't explain a butterfly evolving from a caterpillar.
Source
Responses
- The process of a butterfly developing from a caterpillar is not biological evolution or even related to it. Biological evolution happens to entire populations of organisms over generations. Individual animals do not evolve during their lifetime, rather evolution "takes place" at reproduction. The process of a butterfly developing from a caterpillar is referred to as "complete metamorphosis."
- After centuries of studying insects, entomologists have come up with two reasons why butterflies, and all other holometabolous insects (moths, wasps, beetles, etc) undergo complete metamorphosis, in that, ecologically, the larvae and the adults are not in direct competition with each other, and that, biologically, the larval stage can be seen as akin to a precocious embryo that has hatched from its egg before assuming an adult-like form, which is then achieved upon entering the pupal stage.
- The claim assumes a race of primordial caterpillars which were able to reproduce without metamorphosis. It implies that the pupa and imago (adult) stages of the holometabolic lifecycle could not have evolved from such a species. Whilst it is difficult to imagine how selection may have targeted this change, the claim's initial assumption is flawed. The ancestor of holometabolic insects, like other insects, likely underwent an embryo stage before emerging as an ametabolic (non-metamorphic) insect. Selection pressure to reduce intra-species competition would have resulted in hemimetabolic insects which undergo embryo, nymph, and imago stages (examples include praying mantises, cockroaches, and dragonflies); allowing children and adults to occupy different ecological niches. As the nymph and imago stages became increasingly distinct from each other the insect would have been more vulnerable during the final metamorphosis, thus selection would have targeted insects capable of resisting predation which led to the evolution of the pupa stage. Thus organisms which undergo distinct embryo, larva, pupa, and imago stages evolved.
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Fallacies contained in this claim
- Argument from incredulity (I don't know how it happened, so it didn't happen)
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