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22 January 2006
So well adapted by evolution "to a polluted environment that they won't be able to live in a clean one?" A demonstration of evolution and a cautionary tale.
Back in the day, oxygen was toxically corrosive to living things, but some photosynthizing organisms produced it as a waste product. When oxygen became abundant in the environment, organisms evolved ways to exist with this toxic gas, and eventually, to use it.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
