| highwaystar101 said: Bacteria evolve, they evolve into other bacteria all the damn time. I recall the e-coli experiments which saw the e-coli bacteria evolve from acidophobes into acidophiles. It only 40,000 generations for a bacteria to essentially completely evolve into another bacteria. The resistant who had mutations that allowed them to resist the acid had gained superiority over those that hadn't, and so they got to pass on their genetic traits. In fact over 20,000 generations the reckoned hundreds of millions of mutations had occurred. so there bacteria do evolve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment |
I suppose the real question is though... what makes the bacteria a completly new species?
Currently our definitions of species aren't set in stone so to speak. There has yet to be a genetic barcode made to decide what species are what... and it's all very arbitrary... largely based on interbreeding.
Even if it does exist... it could be argued that the number of genetic difference needed could be arbitrary. It's why before such a thing exists they need to sequence every DNA code into a giant database.
Dogs for example are considered the same species because they can mate... yet couldn't they also mate with Canus Lupis? There are wolves that can breed with dogs... why aren't dogs still considered wolves? Personal conceit since dogs are ours and wolves are outside?
Numbers of interesting questions when it comes to the species problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem
