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A comment on New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed everything. Parent comment

Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by thescriptkiddie on Monday January 11, 2016 @06:45PM (#10884541)
> do not individually confer any evolutionary advantage

Genes which do not confer any advantage are just as likely to spread as ones that do. Evolution doesn't select for advantages, it selects against disadvantages. Evolution is just an emergent property of death.

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Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by Al-Khwarizmi on Monday January 11, 2016 @06:52PM (#10884570)
Not having an advantage that others have is a disadvantage, though.
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Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by thescriptkiddie on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @02:08PM (#10889587)
The point is that a mutation that causes no harm can persist, resulting in traits that serve no discernible function. Later on, multiple harmless but non-useful mutations might together make something interesting happen. Therefore the local maxima problem is not really a problem.
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