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Sharks have been around for 350 million years or more (depending on how inclusive you are), and 'modern' sharks have been around for 100 million years (or longe
by mannykannot 8y ago
Sharks have been around for 350 million years or more (depending on how inclusive you are), and 'modern' sharks have been around for 100 million years (or longer, depending on what counts as modern), but evolution within that family (if that's the right taxonomic rank) has been going on pretty much continuously, as in most families. Great Whites are relative newcomers, ~16 million years ago.
This example [1] of hybridization in the wild has the potential for eventually leading to a new species.
[1] https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/120101_sharkhybrid https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/120101_sharkh...
- lifeisstillgood 8y agoI was not trying to imply that sharks had somehow avoided evolution (probably just could not be bothered to read Darwin's dense prose) ! Merely that if you are the perfect "fit" in size and shape etc already, evolution must focus on the more and more esoteric threats to your reproductive survival. Once you are basically swimming in a warm buffet, with nothing likely to be able to kill you one on one, evolutions pressures relax on the big obvious things and starts to focus on that liver. which seems to be pretty big even for a predator.