• Question: If everything evolved from amoebas, how does the world still have amoebas?

    Asked by Fish 'n' Chips to Dawn on 20 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Dawn Lau

      Dawn Lau answered on 20 Jun 2016:


      We didn’t evolve from amoebas! We evolved from a much simpler lifeform than amoebas – so we share a common ancestor. Amoebas are actually fairly complex organisms, moreso than the single-celled bacteria that we likely evolved from. Also, evolution doesn’t just result in one species – species evolve and branch off their ancestors to form new lines. Think of the amoeba as a very, very distant cousin, rather than an ancestor!

Comments