Why is there such similarity in all Earth life forms?

[Enmos]

I think insects have extreme variations of things one finds in mamals and reptiles...for example they all have tracheas but instead of just one in mamals and reptiles insects have them on each of their legs.

Not quite.

I urge you to read this:
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/tutorial/respire.html

Also, insects evolved long before any mammal did.
And mammals did not evolve from insects.

 

[Yorda]

there is similarity because you need to have because organisms wouldn't survive if they didn't have important things like "teeth, stomach, intestines, hearts, livers, brains, arteries, veins, blood, skin, eyes, lungs, nostrils, mouth, etc."

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

there is similarity because you need to have because organisms wouldn't survive if they didn't have important things like "teeth, stomach, intestines, hearts, livers, brains, arteries, veins, blood, skin, eyes, lungs, nostrils, mouth, etc."

Your definition of "organism" seems to apply only to the Animal Kingdom. Plants and fungi don't have anything remotely analogous to teeth, stomachs, hearts, livers, brains, eyes, lungs and mouths, and it's a stretch to give them credit for several of the remaining six items on your list. I don't know as much about bacteria but I'm sure they also fall far short of satisfying this list.

The reason animals have all evolved similar organs is that they all evolved in the same environmental conditions. They have to have organs that take in oxygen and exhaust carbon dioxide and water because hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are three of the most abundant and easily accessible elements on this planet in this temperature and pressure. They have to have mouths and teeth and digestive organs because most of the available food on this planet in this temperature and pressure is solid. They have to have circulatory systems for the same reason: at this temperature and pressure, with the elements available to form living things on this planet, they're going to need a liquid suspension of nutrients to keep their solid body parts alive.

There's absolutely no reason to predict that we'll find these same paradigms in the living things on a gas giant, or a frozen world, or a molten planet, or out in interstellar space. But we might very well expect to find them on another planet similar to earth. If you have an ambient temperature somewhere between the freezing and boiling points of water and your atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide, you shouldn't be surprised to encounter photosynthesis, or something very similar. And then a billion years later something is going to evolve that can eat the plants, and then something else that can eat the herbivores. Duh.

 

[Enmos]

there is similarity because you need to have because organisms wouldn't survive if they didn't have important things like "teeth, stomach, intestines, hearts, livers, brains, arteries, veins, blood, skin, eyes, lungs, nostrils, mouth, etc."

Something tells me you base this on mammalian lifeforms only.

 

[joepistole]

silicon life haha.

joepistole you are some what right.

much of animal life on earth is similar. sure insects dont have teeth but they have something similar to teeth, that act as teeth. they dont have lungs but have something that behave as lungs. could keep going but, im sure its not necessary. for sure though they are multicellular eukarotic heterotrophs. that is the interesting part, it suggests a single ancestor.

but the most interesting is how diverse life has turned out to be on this planet. it seams that each day some new life form is discovered that breaks some rule. so while it could be reasoned that life on another planet may have evolved many of the same characteristics found in organisms here on earth. it also could be that life on another planet may be so different that we may not be able to recognize it as life at all. we could be the oddballs.

now here is an interesting thought.
what if, as on earth, there was a universal evolution. in other words the "laws" that formed life here on earth, the way life is/was created on earth. what if it is not unique to the earth but, unique to our universe? the earth could be the universal equivalent of McDonalds.

Exactly right, is there some evolutionary advantage to the way life has evolved on Earth? Is Earth the McDonalds of the universe? If not why can the Star Trek crew travel anywhere in the universe and eat locat foods without getting poisoned?

 

[Yorda]

Your definition of "organism" seems to apply only to the Animal Kingdom.

of course. plants don't have organs so they're not organisms.

The reason animals have all evolved similar organs is that they all evolved in the same environmental conditions.

yes, but i think it's also because intelligent designers made them.

 

[Enmos]

of course. plants don't have organs so they're not organisms.

Here we go again..

- plants have organs
- plants are organisms
- educate yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_(anatomy)#Plant_organs

yes, but i think it's also because intelligent designers made them.

Go play with your Lego blocks.

 

[buckybeam]

go play with your organs.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

yes, but i think it's also because intelligent designers made them.

How curious that someone so intelligent as to be able to create life is so unimaginative as to do it the same way over and over again! If I had just gotten done inventing amphibians, I can assure you that my next project would not be reptiles.

 

[Enmos]

go play with your organs.

I hope that wasn't directed at me, bucky.

Behold:

Insects aren't animals, they're insects.

spiders are insects, millipedes are insects (because they have legs and other insect attributes) and worms at the same time. ordinary worms are neither insects or animals, they're just worms.

snails kinda look like worms, but because they come out from a shell, they're not entirely worms. they are snails.

i should also say that dolphins are fish, because most people usually think they're something else.

 

[Yorda]

How curious that someone so intelligent as to be able to create life is so unimaginative as to do it the same way over and over again!

what are you talking about? there is great variety in lifeforms.

If I had just gotten done inventing amphibians, I can assure you that my next project would not be reptiles.

the intelligent designers created many life forms at the same time.

 

[buckybeam]

I hope that wasn't directed at me, bucky.

Behold:

nope haha

no yorda.

yorda no offense but ya really do need to buck up on some of your biology, jeez thats pretty bad.

 

[buckybeam]

How curious that someone so intelligent as to be able to create life is so unimaginative as to do it the same way over and over again! If I had just gotten done inventing amphibians, I can assure you that my next project would not be reptiles.

yes but remember the designer also created rules. whose to say that the designer didnt just create evolution and see what happens.

 

[Roman]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

 

[CheskiChips]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

Since ribosomes are so consistent, is it a tool evolved early? Or was it at one time its self an organism?

 

[CheskiChips]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

Since ribosomes are so consistent, is it a tool evolved early? Or was it at one time its self an organism?

 

[CheskiChips]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

Since ribosomes are so consistent, is it a tool evolved early? Or was it at one time its self an organism?

 

[DwayneD.L.Rabon]

If I were asked so summarize life on Earth, the phrase "variation on a theme" seems appropriate. So many very different species share so much in common. For example almost all multicellurlar organisms have teeth, stomach, intestines, hearts, livers, brains, arteries, veins, blood, skin, eyes, lungs, nostrils, mouth, etc.

Why is there so much consistency...so much sameness...various variations on a theme? Thre is a lot of similar architecture. Is it likely that if we were to find another planet similar to Earth and life, if it existed there, would be very similar to what we find on Earth? Is it likely we will find the same architecture for life elsewhere in the Universe, lungs, heart, liver, etc? Why is there no radically different kind of architecture or is there something intresically critical to the basic design we see here on Earth...given the environmental circumstances present on Earth?

Well Joe the awnser to your question is no, life forms form another solar system or even another planet within our solar system would not look the same as human life forms on earth. The proccess of organ communication may be simular (fluids have to travel ect..) but they would not look the same.

It is one reason that the alien that are shown in movies and in reports are considered false accounts given thier descriptions. How ever there remains the chance occurance that they appear in some simular manner, of which that chance exists only to a few solar systems for human type oragnization, which limits the possiblity where such alien life could come from, to maybe a chance of the solar system of Alpha Centauri, which is actually are closest neighboring star onw that aliens might travel from so we could see them. it is also a very complexed solar system ( meaning the possiblty of intelligent life is very high.).


DwayneD.L.Rabon

 

[CheskiChips]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

Since ribosomes are so consistent, is it a tool evolved early? Or was it at one time its self an organism?

 

[CheskiChips]

One thing we all share are ribosomes. When using genetics to do phylogenies, looking at ribosomes (the things that read RNA to make proteins) tells a lot about relationships. It's because it's such a highly conserved (eg, very mutation resistant) region, since it's superduper important.

Since ribosomes are so consistent, is it a tool evolved early? Or was it at one time its self an organism?