A common thread among living things across the planet is how
they are able to adapt to changing environments by means of an evolutionary
process. Thousands of studies have determined lineage through changing
characteristics for many species of animals that have, in essence, morphed in
shape and traits over time. Throughout each transition, DNA changes subtly and
an effective recording is maintained in markers that allow scientists to trace ancestry
and identify relationships.
Findings from studying evolution provide a wealth of helpful
information, such as how humans adapted to different climates and how migration
affected the adaptations. In the animal kingdom, scientists are able to
determine when certain types of fish began to walk on land for the first time. Similar
discoveries show how snakes evolved away from having limbs to instead favor
slithering for locomotion. One could possibly make an argument there, why would
snakes evolve legs to walk on land like lizards and then evolve away from
quadrupedalism to slide across the ground?
While it may seem counterproductive for snakes to grow legs
over time and later not require their use, there is another intriguing question
here. What happens to the cells and DNA or RNA from the legs during a quadrupedal
phase after the fact? Similarly, the question can be asked with humans and the
evolution of the appendix. Humans are currently born with the organ in this
age, but there is a strong likelihood that eventually will not be the case as
the appendix evolves completely away into nothing more than a trace marker it once
existed.
Suppose the matter shed from evolving creatures is not
really lost over thousands of years and instead is retained in complex
biological environments; theorizing that long and arduous process of evolution results
as free radical fragments of DNA and RNA floating within the systems. For instance,
as animals evolve beyond the need of certain biological characteristics, cells
composing those features are shed in fragments wrapped in proteins we later
identify as viruses. When introduced to a system of evolved biological
function, the rogue instruction sets cause disturbances and short-circuiting as
they are only fragments of larger programs.
Perhaps this could explain why a number of ailments to
humans, like influenza,
coronavirus, and many other diseases manifest similar
symptoms when the virus interacts with biological entities. It also provides a
possible explanation of how new viruses are constantly being discovered if they
are in fact a byproduct of evolutionary process in animals. The disposed DNA
and RNA material could be excreted by an animal in some way, through the digestive
tract or maybe a type of osmosis process, then passed to hosts by a variety of means.
Language and attitude about viruses tend to give an
impression that viruses are intelligent, like they intentionally seek hosts to
occupy for propagation. The theory of shed DNA is quite the opposite whereby material
is discarded by one animal and ingested or inhaled by another. After all, the
virus is deceased with the host and no longer survives when all hosts have
expired. It makes sense to then consider viruses as unintelligent fragments of
instruction sets left behind from thousands and millions of years of biological
evolution.
