Thread:High King Ithilion/@comment-31308946-20170524212814/@comment-25330335-20170525131945

Tbh I think that people don't like evolution because it isn't kind to the individual. If you don't have good genes, you die and don't get to pass them along. If you have good genes, you're healthy and get to pass them on.

I'm sure if that turtle were alive today, it would look quite different from the turtles we see in most places today. It is possible that it didn't get any helpful mutations in that time between then and now (did I mention the speed of evolution depends on the lifespan of the species that is evolving?), and if it has a long lifespan, that is more likely.

To correct Ithilion a bit, I wouldn't say that Breeding causes evolution. I'd put it that breeding speeds up evolution and makes it possible to see.

Take dogs. 400 years ago (which we do have paintings, written accounts, etc.), or even later, there were not very many breeds of dogs. However, around the victorian era, there was an explosion of different breeds, as dogs became popular as rich people pets. That's because the rich chose the traits in dogs that they liked, and kept and bred those traits. It doesn't matter if only one animal has the mutation; If it's helpful enough, it will be passed on.