[Newsbot]

Title: �Survival of fittest� is disputed
Category: Science
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2010-08-23 22:04:17

[Bacardi4206]

Eh, I still believe darwin. You see a lot of animals that evolved to suit there envirement. I mean, all the animals in the artic have something that gives them a edge in that envirement. Something that can stand the cold.

You see all other animals evolved to suit there needs. You see natural tree climbers that have tails that they use for balance, the list goes on.

Key point being that every animal has many things that appear to be evolved based on surviving in there envirement. Some animals are better adapted at being predators and others adapting at hiding from them.

[andyt]

At least the story ends with a note of sanity:

$1:

However, Professor Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University, US, told BBC News he "found the patterns interesting, but the interpretation problematic".

He explained: "To give one example, if the reptiles had not been competitively superior to the mammals during the Mesozoic (era), then why did the mammals only expand after the large reptiles went extinct at the end of the Mesozoic?"

"And in general, what is the impetus to occupy new portions of ecological space if not to avoid competition with the species in the space already occupied?"

[Dragom]

So the two examples of evolutionary "lucky breaks" are gaining the ability to fly and "surviving a mass extinction complete with famine, toxic gas and freezing temperatures because of small body size and warm blooded body".

Thats not luck thats finding out you're holding a winning hand.

[KorbenDeck]

I don't see how that disputes survival of the fittest.