Comments by "k98killer" (@k98killer) on "SmarterEveryDay" channel.

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  4. Very long-winded way of ignoring the various stages of winged dinosaurs that did not have the musculoskeletal properties for self-powered slight. There are fossils of many dinosaurs that made a living by riding air currents and simply gliding. Is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that a climbing creature with some primitive wing-like structure has a greater chance of survival and reproductive success than some other climbing creature that simply drops like a rock? Gliding squirrels do not have powered flight capabilities, but their mutations benefit them in some way. The reason you do not see every single transitory mutation is due to population dynamics: transitory forms very seldom stick around for too long, especially during times of low population (for example, after the KT extinction event, which killed off the vast majority of bird ancestors). In small populations, a mutation that gives even a modest increase in fitness or survival likelihood very rapidly becomes ubiquitous throughout the population. It thus follows that a small population of birdosaurs that climb trees would quickly adopt pre-wing structures that allow the birdosaurs to survive high falls; individuals with better control of this fall/glide gain a selective advantage by landing on other branches; individuals with lighter bone structures are able to glide further and have a further selective advantage; those able to flap are better at climbing trees; and so on. These transitory states of tree-dwellers are less likely to be fossilized than ground-dwellers simply as a matter of distance from the rock/mud slides. There are a number of simulations that demonstrate the validity of evolutionary concepts (they are fun to explore, if you're into that sort of thing). Quite often, transitory mutations appear and disappear very quickly. This is just what tends to happen in a system with random mutation and non-random selective pressures. I suggest that you do your own research if you actually want an answer to your questions. However, if your intent is to simply say that "God dun it", then no amount of explanation will ever convince you. (Sorry for the delayed response. I did not see this notification until just now >.<)
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