What is Impossible in Evolution?

↓ More info and sources below ↓

Could humans ever evolve to have wings? Why don’t fish have propellers? Why don’t tigers have wheels? Why don’t zebras have laser turrets? These might all seem like stupid questions (and maybe they are!) but they can teach us a lot about how evolution actually works, and how it doesn’t work.

-----------

Big Thank you to our Brain Trust Patrons:

Roy Lasris
Javier Soto
dani bowman
David Johnston
Ahmed Elkhanany
Zenimal
Salih Arslan
Baerbel Winkler
Robert Young
Amy Sowada
Benjamin Teinby
Eric Meer
Jay Stephens
Peter Ehrnstrom
Dustin
Marcus Tuepker
Karen Haskell
AlecZero
Diego Lombeida

Join us on Patreon!

Twitter

Instagram

Merch

Facebook

[besmart]

We’re aware some people are seeing glitches and artifacts on the video. We’ve reviewed and it’s not in the master video file! Seems to be a problem on YouTube’s end with how they encode the videos (we aren’t the only channel affected), and we hope it’s fixed soon.

[Happy-yfbc]

“Why is there no giraffe-sized chickens”

Because they got wiped out by a space rock

[AhmedAffraz]

"If humans could fly, we'd consider it exercise and never do it" - Ron Swanson

[bubblebeamm]

I dont even want wings man i just want the lumbar spine to be able to support us

[marrrtin]

Worth mentioning that nature makes wheels, or at least rotors at the molecular scale, such as a flagellum, like a propellor for a protist, or the famous "waterwheel driven by protons", ATP Synthase.

[vekkimheng]

People : where's the laser zebras?!

Evolution : crabs, take it or leave it.

[joshuasims]

Giraffe size chicken isn’t remotely impossible, that’s a T-rex

[so-ares]

"Nature is infinitely creative" - Keep creating crabs...

[MartijnMuller]

Some hairless ape: why don't we have giraffe-sized chickens?

Dinosaurs: am I a joke to you?

[andyt]

I read this somewhere. Evolution isn’t about the “best” or even the “good”, it’s about the “good enough”

[breadloafbrad]

The hills and valleys representation of evolution is actually an incredible way of visualizing it

[matheuroux]

If we all start actively pretending that large arms are super attractive, and seek mates with massive arms, that would be the first step towards a wing evolution.

[gilgonzalez]

“You don’t just get something because it’s cool”

My financial decisions beg to differ.

[shallowseller]

5 millions years later

Laser Zebra: Well guess what.

[darkwowplayer]

"Why haven't Zebras evolved laser turrets to fend off lions?"

FINALLY, SOMEONE IS ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS!

[nobody]

when people say they want wings, i don't think anyone is thinking about turning their arms in to wings but having wings come out of their back.

[weston]

I had the EXACT same experience with Return to Oz and the wheelers when I was a kid - the wheeler looking through the keyhole absolutely terrified me

[ewanbiesinger]

A lovely way to sum this up would be to state that “evolution is lazy”. Evolution will solve a problem in the easiest way possible. And will never go out of its way to make a species superior.

[juksleo]

**Looks at the thumbnail**

**looks at my pet Zebra**

Me: "it's ok Gerald, don't listen to him, your lasers will grow in a few years"

[lluma]

Looks at thumbnail

“Hey Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!”