How are viruses thought to have originated?

kaylofgorons

Oooo. I found this site on viruses. Have you seen this one yet? http://www.virology.net/Big_Virology/BVHomePage.html It's *The Great Big Book of Everything* Virus style apparently. Going to check it out... Dec 10 04, 8:05 PM

McGruff

The true ancestry of viruses is a mystery, and perhaps always will be, for viruses have left no fossil record behind them. They are so small that it is unlikely that any record of them has survived for very long, and they have only been known to science for about a hundred years - scarcely long enough to learn very much about their evolution. Martinus Beijerinck, the scientist credited with the isolation of the first virus. Some scientists believe that viruses evolved out of cells, gradually losing so much of their genetic information that they became dependent on other cells for their reproduction, or alternatively that they arose from bits of genetic material within the cell that acquired a life of their own. Other scientists believe that viruses originated and evolved along with the most primitive forms of life, the simple molecules that gained self-replicating abilities. Some of these took the form of cells - others evolved into the viruses which parasitized those same cells. http://www.epidemic.org/theFacts/viruses/theOriginsOfViruses.html Another interesting site: http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/tutorial/virorig.html">http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/tutorial/virorig.html Feb 26 05, 12:02 PM