Why would animals lose survival abilities through evolution?

It seems like humans would've had to evolve from an ancestor that had good survival skills before the brain developed. Other animals that exist now (and in the past) have great survival skills, like speed, claws, horns, strength, etc. If you put a human without intelligence in proximity to a predator, how would the human possibly protect himself? We aren't that fast or strong compared to lions, tigers or bears (sorry, couldn't resist!), and we don't have much in the way of defense capabilities, like shells or claws. So if our ancestors used to have better defense mechanisms (and wouldn't they have had to have them to survive and breed to make us?), why would we lose them? Yes, our brains are great, but isn't evolution all about improvement and survivability? If we had those defenses along with the brain power, we would be that much better off.

Also, I just want to mention that I am a Christian and I do believe in God-directed evolution. I just don't believe that everything evolved from random mutations. Honestly, even with the accepted time frame for mammals, it doesn't seem like there would be enough time for random evolution to account for everything.

Comments for Why would animals lose survival abilities through evolution?

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Nov 16, 2017

No more claws
by: Paul (Webmaster)

Often evolution is provoked by a change in environment. Either overpopulation drives a segment of the population away or perhaps the environment changes over time or from a disaster. In the new environment, claws may not be needed for defense. The ground might be different or some other reason.

Oct 15, 2017

Clarification
by: Anonymous

Just came across this again and realized I had worded the earlier response poorly. I meant to indicate that an example of a survival trait was claws. So I was asking why a mutation that negated a survival trait would propagate through the species. For example, why would a mutation that resulted in a loss of claws or some other survival trait be propagated? That was the whole point of my original question. If we came from a species that used to have better defenses in order to survive (before the brain developed into a human brain), how would evolution account for the loss of those defenses without God directing it? I would think Darwinian evolution would predict the exact opposite, i.e., a mutation resulting in the loss of a survival trait would not be propagated.

Jun 17, 2015

Why?
by: Paul

Why would claws negate a survival trait?

Jun 17, 2015

Negative mutations
by: Anonymous

Even if I used the wrong term (random evolution instead of random mutation), still the whole basis for evolution is random mutations that provide a survival benefit, or at least a survival-until-reproduction-age benefit. Why would a mutation that negated a survival trait (like claws, etc.) have propagated through the species? That would be the exact opposite of what evolution without intelligent direction would predict. That was what I was originally trying to ask.

Jun 17, 2015

Random Mutations, not random evolution
by: Paul

Evolution is not random. Mutation is random. Natural selection then "chooses" mutations that increase reproductive fitness. At the simplest level, evolution is bazillions of random mutations PLUS natural selection.

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"I have been a biologist for a long time, and I hope I never stop getting shivers in my spine when I think about the beauty of how we come to know things in biology.

Biologists make predictions, then they go out into the field or the lab to see if their predictions hold up. When hundreds of predictions of this sort are fulfilled, a theory reaches the point where it becomes certain, at least on a broad level. And that is where we are with evolution."

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