Hacker News Reader

Think about it.

The species that is now Mitochondria was an entirely different species.

We carry Mitochondrial DNA, while the human side is Nuclear DNA…nucleus of every cell.

Birth as we know it wouldn’t have happened without a third species invading our cells. We know it as placenta.

Profound that we fight microbes, but without two (that we know about), our species literally (accurate use) would not exist.

At all.

Just, wow.

View on HN

I mean, everything would seem to indicate that mitochondria were assimilated while our ancestors were still microbes themselves. But that aside, our species is the result of everything that happened prior to its appearance, including for example the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Arguing that we should not attempt to prevent such events (if we're able to) because it would evolutionarily benefit the survivors is suicidal.

There's nothing special about our species. If things had happened different would the species that would have been in our place (whatever that means) be better or worse by any metric one chooses? There's no point in wondering about that.

Yes, our ancestors were simpler…clearly.

We aren’t the only species with the placenta…horses, for example…

One species among many.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com