Absolutely everyone has heard about evolution and Darwin these days. We all study the basics of the theory of evolution in biology, as well as the fact that mankind descended from monkeys, that there is natural selection and the fittest survive. But few people know that some scientists have become interested in the process of reverse evolution and have already managed to draw some conclusions from the experiments. For example, bacteria can always go back exactly one mutation back, but as they accumulate, they lose this ability.
In order to understand the intricacies and understand what it is, we need a little deeper knowledge in this area. This article will discuss whether there is actually any definition of the reverse process of evolution, and whether it is correct to use in this vein the very terms that it is now customary to designate this phenomenon for convenience.
Evolution
The term itself comes from Englishthe verb evolve, which means "gradually evolve."
In biology, evolution is considered to be the change of genes from generation to generation, although the misuse of this term in the media is very common. For example, when evolution and natural selection are not distinguished from each other. Sometimes they even manage to apply it to the Big Bang, which has nothing to do with it.
Charles Darwin, creating his theory, relied on the principles of natural selection and genetic mutations. Organisms gradually adapted, trying not to die in a changing and complex world, evolving from generation to generation in order to survive.
The scientist believed that the process of evolution could not go back. According to him, a species that has become extinct will not appear again, even if the necessary conditions for its life are established.
But it's very easy to imagine (purely theoretically) that a certain mammal will again return the membranes between the fingers, just getting into the environment in which the ancestors of this species had them for centuries. The most interesting thing is that the membranes can actually appear. But this cannot be called a process of reverse evolution, since with regrowth it would be correct to call what happened a regression. The fact is that this will happen differently, not in the way that once the membranes disappeared, giving way to the fingers. This will simply be a new step, a simplification of an existing design, and not a return to the previous stage of development.
What is the name of the reverse processevolution?
At the moment, there is no term that carries exactly this semantic load, which, of course, does not interfere with the desire to speculate on such an interesting topic. Therefore, in this case, the incorrect use of names and definitions is permissible. For this reason, terms such as degradation, regression, and involution are often used to refer to the process of reverse evolution.
Degradation and regression
In fact, this is only the destruction and deterioration of the situation, antonyms for the word "progress", which does not mean a return to the already passed stage. These terms mean quality degradation, decomposition processes, and so on. Of course, this is not appropriate for the reverse evolution process, because it does not fully correspond to it.
Involution
This word often denotes the loss of any organs in the process of evolution itself, their atrophy in the process of aging, as well as the reverse development and restoration of the past properties of an organ, for example, the uterus after childbirth. Although this term is considered to be closer to the word "evolution", it is impossible to officially call its reverse process involution as a phenomenon. This is just a kind of evolution that brings certain changes.
Reversibility of evolution
According to scientists who have studied bacteria and the reversibility of their evolutionary changes, the most important problem is not to prove the existence and possibility of this phenomenon, but to understand how, when and why it can occur. To understand this mechanism, scientists turned their attention toon bacteria and their mutations that caused antibiotic resistance.
To become resistant, a bacterium had to have five specific mutations. The purpose of the experiment was to find out whether reversibility in this process is possible and whether the bacteria will lose the ability to mutate and antibiotic resistance with a decrease in survival in the new environment. It turned out that bacteria could always go back one mutation, but the presence of four stages was already critical.
That is, we are not talking about the complete reversibility of evolutionary processes now, but the study of that very “point of no return” worries many scientists.
