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NEWS > SCIENCE > OYSTER EVOLUTION MAY HERALD END OF HUMANITY
OYSTER EVOLUTION MAY HERALD END OF HUMANITY
August 8 2010
Annapolis, MD – The history of our planet has been one of death and destruction. The vast majority of the species that have ever lived – in the neighbourhood of 90 percent – are now extinct and the realities of our modern world indicate that trend is 
not about the change. In addition to all the manmade threats to our existence, natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes threaten our existence and the continuation of all life on our planet. Like the dinosaurs, millions of years of evolution could be wiped out in an instant because that is what the Earth does.
Had they the brain capacity the giant lizards of the past likely would never have imagined that the furry little creatures running around their feet would eventually come to take their place. That is exactly what happened though when the massive fireball came through the sky and slammed into the Yucatan. The megafauna of the time was decimated and the smaller life forms including the first mammals survived. With a planet all to themselves, mammals evolved and now we have taken over every corner of the globe. Fish and lizards still populate the landscape but it is mammals that rule the earth, meaning we are likely the first to go when things go bad again. Now researchers believe they may have found the next caretakers of the planet in the form of evolving oysters in Chesapeake Bay who are already planning for their rule.
“The oysters in this area seem to naturally evolving a resistance to two major diseases. These changes appear to be a process of natural selection and are making them immune to two diseases, MSX and Dermo, diseases which have devastated the species in the past,” said one researcher. “We haven’t seen this type of behaviour from oyster populations in other areas of the world indicating that there is a high incident of these diseases in this area or that these particular oysters are on the forefront of a new stage of evolution which is exciting but also frightening. We expect they will taste the same.”
Oysters in the area have suffered record declines in recent decades throughout the bay area.
“Frankly, we don’t know how evolution works. Occasionally it seems to grow over time
and in other areas it just suddenly leaps forward. In the case of humans it worked incredibly quickly but in crocodile it stopped and hasn’t moved forward in millions of years. The reasons and pathology of evolution are still very much a mystery to science,” said Scrape TV Apocalypse analyst Seth Morris. “One thing we do know for certain is that species either evolve to threats or they expire as a result of them. These oysters appear to adapting to a threat but they could also be preparing for something else. Kind of like a dog knowing when an earthquake is about the strike they could be sensing that there is a change coming and they are readying themselves for their shot, which is bad news for us.”
Likely the only event capable of wiping out all mammals on the planet is an asteroid collision similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
“Apophis, if it hits, will kill a whole lot of people and animal life but it won’t wipe out the planet. It wouldn’t be an extinction level event. For that we would need something much bigger. Of course the ensuing chaos could cause other chaos like releasing the cores from nuclear power plants and thus creating a nuclear winter,” continued Morris. “A combination of factors would have to occur to wipe us out but it is perfectly possible. Who knows, like the dinosaurs we could have been walking on our successors this whole time and were none the wiser.”
Experts believe that wiping out the evolving oysters likely will not prevent the apocalypse.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
NEWS > SCIENCE > OYSTER EVOLUTION MAY HERALD END OF HUMANITY
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