Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-32918765-20171030193812/@comment-26149161-20171103175446

Sir Lazuli wrote: Selective breeding is not evolution. Take dogs for example. While there are a wide variety of breeds, we have not evolved dogs into a higher form of life over all the thousands of years we have selectively bred them. The chance of mutations actually adding good information to a creature’s genome is astronomically small. The result of selective breeding is that we have creatures which, while having a particular exaggerated characteristic they were bred for, are actually less capable of survival on their own than before the breeding. This is why specific breeds of dogs often have numerous health problems, while mutts are healthier.

But this discussion really doesn’t matter. We can argue about whether selective breeding is evolution or not, but the fact is there is no such thing as evolution in Arda. Tolkien’s legendarium explicitly states that living things were created by the Valar / Ainur. Living things can be corrupted by evil things, but they do not evolve into a higher form of life. We do see examples of adaptation like the cave fish (or a sort of magically enhanced adaptation in the case of Gollum) but there’s no evolution. So whether or not selective breeding is evolution in the real world, it definitely isn’t in Tolkien’s world.

What are hobbits, then? They are not mentioned in the Ainulindale, and are said to have "first appeared" in the Vale of Anduin. They must have been some form of evolved subspecies.

Ithilion, Discussions Moderator (Auta i lómë)