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I was just listening to eons in my car and specifically the episode about armored fish, and the thought occurred to me: isn't evolution ultimately selecting for adaptability? (m.youtube.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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It would seem the design that can survive the most extinctions would be the clear winner in the end.

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[–] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

There are some species which haven't changed all that much for millions of years

Like... crocodiles?

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago

The biggest one (aside from obvious examples like sponges and jellyfish) has got to be dragonflies. The original dragonfly was as big three-dimensionally as a footlong sub from Subway, though it was a breathing machine (like us, so let this be a true fable for us to learn from) as it needed oxygen that wasn't in large enough supply. So it simply shrunk in size to adapt once all the air ran out and there was no Druidia to restore it, and ever since then, we've had the same tiny dragonfly model ever since, for almost a billion years.

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And conifers

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 10 months ago

Conifers don't have a bite force of 20,000 newtons and stomach acid that can disolve bone.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 2 points 10 months ago

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