[ExI] ‘Survival of fittest’ is disputed

[BillK]

A study proposes that Charles Darwin may have been wrong when he
argued that competition was the major driving force of evolution.

He imagined a world in which organisms battled for supremacy and only
the fittest survived.

But new research identifies the availability of "living space", rather
than competition, as being of key importance for evolution.

Findings question the old adage of "nature red in tooth and claw".

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11063939>

Professor Mike Benton, a co-author on the study, explained that
"competition did not play a big role in the overall pattern of
evolution".

"For example, even though mammals lived beside dinosaurs for 60
million years, they were not able to out-compete the dominant
reptiles. But when the dinosaurs went extinct, mammals quickly filled
the empty niches they left and today mammals dominate the land," he
told BBC News.

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Typical mammals!  Too lazy to compete.  Just wait till the space is
vacant, then move in.


BillK