Thanks Marcus for clearing up some points for me, still not wholly convinced but you've given me a couple of starting points to look further. One other question is how come some species haven't evolved? As in everything started micro-organisms, but we still have them today. Sure some of them such as viruses, bacteria and parasites have evolved to benefit from larger life forms, but there are still ones around that don't like zoo plankton.
Why would they be gone? They survive successfully and reproduce successively. Organisms simply make themselves more suited to their current environment, complexity is not a goal of evolution it is simply occasionally a consequence.
Seems that you are ignoring his major point. How does natural selection and luck/chance explain throwing out efficient and easy reproduction for a hard and non-efficient process?
Because it's better.
Sexual reproduction leads to more diverse offspring capable of better dealing with infections and parasites. Certain snails can reproduce either sexually or asexually depending on their situations. In areas where there are high incidences of parasites the snails will switch to sexual reproduction, in areas where parasites are not found they reproduce asexually. I don't see how that isn't seen as a benefit.
There wasn't. The first "male" was probably a hermaphrodite. Though sharing your dna with another organism is hardly exclusively higher order. Bacteria trade discrete little packets of dna to each other called plasmids, which serves a similar function to sexual reproduction.
MOSTLY INCORRECTYou are confusing hermaphrodite with asexual, and also do not understand when or how they do it. * Note 1: Self-fertilization is NOT the same as Asexual, which requires NO fertilization.
Note 2: Some crustaceans are hermaphrodites but they do not self fertilize, (not usually- but can), so not all hermaphrodites from different family classes
or even the the same family class have the same trait of self-fertilization.
Note 3: Other snails and slugs are hermaphrodites (true), but also cannot self-fertilize like their kin the banana slug. So the banana slug has anomalies among both hermaphrodites of different families, phylums, and classes, and an anomaly of self-fertilization within its own family of snails (gastropods).
Note 4: With all that being said, then yes Raist most snails are hermaphrodites, but not all self-fertilize
and none are asexual with no fertilization, but instead they either self-fertilize - like simulataneous hermaphrodites (example banana slug), or for other snails and some other hermaphrodites they copulate as sequential hermaphrodites (by switching to the other gender)
Additionally:Note 5: Some hermaphrodites are very different than they are for human beings or snails. Human and snail hermaphrodites have both genetalia, but most other types of hermaphrodites usually just switch between female and male when necessary. In the latter, those hermaphrodites can switch back and forth many times in the course of their lives, while other hermaphrodites can switch only one time.
Note 6: Those that can switch to the other gender do NOT switch to sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction as you said Raist due to "high incidents of parasites," but instead switch the gender when the female has been removed from the group, so it's not related to parasites at all as a reason for doing so. When no female is present they either switch (or in the case of the Banana Slug they self-fertilize.) This is called "artificial selection" also known as selective breeding, which is not the same as natural selection, which describes intentional breeding for certain traits or combination of traits. Even evolutionist Charles Darwin knew that, for he utilized the term in contrast to natural selection in which the diffential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive ability.
Note 7: There are hermaphrodites that are sequential and those that are simultaneous (for genetalia). Sequential are: Wrasses (marine fish), the Clownfish, Teleost, flowering plants and MOST Gastropods. Simultaneous hermaphrodites are Hamlets, Banana Slugs, and Earthworms, (which were originally thought to be asexual).
Note 8: And Raist, your remark of "The first male was probably a hermaphrodite"- actually hermaphrodites (not including humans) can start as a male and switch to female, as well as a female can switch to a male; they do NOT ALL START as males.
Raist, whatever happened to that biology degree you say you have, while working on another degree of the same sort? I would suggest a better university.