Tunn11
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 2,278
- Location
- Under the highest tree top in Kent
There are lots of organisms that are symbiotic in one way or another. Lichens are a fungus and an algae and have presumably had many millions of years to evolve this symbiosis. Darwin’s moth can only have had 60 million years o so, since the origin of flowering plants to develop the exclusive pollinator arrangement.
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news...darwin-and-wallace-becomes-a-new-species.html
Various micro organisms have been around for a very long time and mutate quickly, so why not one that enhances its “victim”?
Many trigger an immune response and/or make their victims ill or kill them. Ok coughing and spluttering etc. help spread the infector but how much better would it be if the micro organism enhanced the victim to be stronger, live longer, be more sexually attractive, etc. thus enabling it to spread the infecting organism more efficiently?
I don’t know of any examples (aside from IIRC Red Dwarf’s DJ virus that made the victims incurably cheerful)
Are there any; and if not why not?
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news...darwin-and-wallace-becomes-a-new-species.html
Various micro organisms have been around for a very long time and mutate quickly, so why not one that enhances its “victim”?
Many trigger an immune response and/or make their victims ill or kill them. Ok coughing and spluttering etc. help spread the infector but how much better would it be if the micro organism enhanced the victim to be stronger, live longer, be more sexually attractive, etc. thus enabling it to spread the infecting organism more efficiently?
I don’t know of any examples (aside from IIRC Red Dwarf’s DJ virus that made the victims incurably cheerful)
Are there any; and if not why not?