Space

Evolution Leads Us To What Aliens Might Really Look Like

Alex Davis
First Posted: Aug 25, 2016 04:24 AM EDT

The existence of extra-terrestrial life has always been debated by many. Curious people want to know how these "alien" creatures really look like. Do they look like humans or do they take a form of something beyond a person's imagination? However, the answer to this question would still depend on how people think evolution works.

Biologists are looking for a possibility that aliens might come from evolution. Stephen Jay Gould, a biologist in a thought experiment, argued the importance of chance in evolution. He asked, what might happen if people were to rewind the "tape of life" and rerun it? In the version of history, it has been known that Pikaia or something like it survived and gave rise to creatures such as amphibians, fish, reptiles, mammals, and even humans.

However, what if it had perished? What if other groups gave rise to intelligent beings? There would probably be a big chance that you are sitting and reading this now with 5 eyes. "If our own origins on Earth really turned on such fine hinges, why should aliens-evolving on different planets remotely resemble us?" Gould also said in a report from IFL Science.

According to express.co.uk, Simon Conway Morris, an evolutionary biologist, animals come closely to resemble each other through the process known as evolutionary convergence. Streamlined shape animals such as Tuna, fish, dolphins, and extinct ichthyosaurs are believed to be a product of this process, while those that came closely to resemble each other evolved through water speed.

For evolution to happen DNA, RNA or some analog must be present, it is for sorting and replicating information, according to Express. It will take nearly 3 billion more years for multicellular animals to evolve. Thus, nobody could really tell what aliens look like, until further research was made, theconversation.com reported.

Meanwhile, Hollywood has given us more or less an idea of what aliens might look like. James Cameron's "Avatar" has somewhat shown what humans can expect to see when aliens decide to appear before their very eyes. Although filmmakers are using computer-generated imagery or CGI, special effects and rubber suits to make the aliens, cinema goers still make an emotional connection with an alien when it's made to look like humans.

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