The concept of 'total evolutionary success' doesn't really make any sense. The species is not extinct, but so is every other extant species. Maybe gene frequen

The concept of 'total evolutionary success' doesn't really make any sense. The species is not extinct, but so is every other extant species. Maybe gene frequency is your success measure? There aren't many of this species around. Some of its genes are found in all birds, so those are pretty successful, but small beans compared to ant or algae genes. All these things probably have some respiration or protein synthesis genes in common. Maybe the success is with respect to their ecological niche? They fly really far! But everything lives in its own niche, and is the same amount of alive in it.... Evolved things are not more or less successful, they just are.