22.5k views
4 votes
When did viruses evolve?

2 Answers

3 votes
Some viruses evolve when bits of DNA or RNA "escape" from genes of a larger organism.
User Cigien
by
6.7k points
6 votes
"some viruses may have evolved from bits of DNA or RNA that "escaped" from the genes of a larger organism (the vagrancy hypothesis or escape hypothesis); or viruses could have evolved from complex molecules of protein and nucleic acid at the same time as cells first appeared on earth (the virus-first hypothesis)."
But viruses have always been here in one way shape or form of the way. When we finally put a name to it ? That's another story.
User Jimmy Kane
by
6.8k points