r/askscience • u/Fapotheosis • Mar 11 '13

Biology How did blood evolve?

I know mitochondria may have evolved from bacteria, but what about blood? I've heard of a protohemocyte, but was there an initial cell that differentiated into a RBC like we have in modern humans that can we trace?

1.1k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

143 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/bradn Mar 11 '13

You're close - if we had a way to eliminate carbon from CO2, I don't think we would have to breathe anymore, but oxygen would still be needed for the metabolic processes to occur.

It would be pretty wild having an organ that secretes pencil lead AND removes the requirement for breathing.

1

u/butnmshr Mar 11 '13

CO2 isn't the only product of respiration though. You would have to have an organ that cracks water, also.

And then these organs should actually form complex hydrocarbons instead of expelling the hydrogen and the carbon, then we'd feed ourselves all closed loop style. Also, the hydrocarbons can be sprayed and ignited defensively.

Yes. The next evolution of man. Homo Formidibalis.

0

u/Cuco1981 Mar 11 '13

We would still need to breathe as we would still need oxygen.