5 ms·

In an evolutionary process, one lineage running away is the most likely outcome. It's very unlikely that two competing lineages would evolve to be exactly equal

• JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > In an evolutionary process, one lineage running away is the most likely outcome What are you basing this on?
  • quantadev 2y ago
    It's based on the fact that one explanation of why there's not even millions more species of all life, is because the more successful ones simply cannibalized the less successful ones. This would've started even before complex life, almost at the chemical level. I say cannibalized, because avoiding eating your own species is a higher brain function that would've came far later, so it came down to eat or be eaten. Still is frankly.
    • Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
      >I say cannibalized, because avoiding eating your own species is a higher brain function that would've came far later, Two convergent intuitions as to why this is true, but for the wrong reasons: Species (maybe only [di?]morphic ones) rarely kill other instances of their own species, only maim - usually to the point of socially/reproductive shame/selective behavior; as infra-species violence is usually done for sexual signaling. Like squirrels neutering each other, giraffes ruffling neck-fights, etc, it is not generally advantageous to actually hurt the opponent more than needed to signal dominance in a social hierarchy - this "gentleman" agreement is similar to all emergent collusion behavior exhibited by "free agents" in a limited pool; even without communication, the self-interested incentive to all follow a convergent rule will eventually emerge. Whether it be price fixing, social norms, or any other system where partially-regulated complex systems compete. Additionally, for cannibalizing to be a positive-selective-trait, the species would had either adapted to eating the liver - the "resilience/filter" of a system, or had been "lucky" enough to identify/delineate/get repulsed by it. Eating your own species liver would be nearly self-defeating-ly impossible from an evolutionary point of view and avoiding it but still eating your own species is too "taboo" (evolutionary artifact) of a benefit to ever randomly stumble into, especially against the benefits of 'good-sportsman-ship'.
      • quantadev 2y ago
        I have no idea what you meant by liver. Maybe it's a biology term I'm unaware of. Certainly you didn't mean the organ. lolz. Anyway, an interesting point about evolution is that things had to have been eating other smaller things long before the brain had enough processing power for "Species Recognition". It would've initially been a simple brain and rod/cone eye neuron and motor neuron in a fish that executed primary the rule of "See movement then execute tail wag, open mouth, close mouth" in that order. It takes like 5 neurons wired in a specific way to accomplish that. The first neurons had to have been that simple. Indeed the chain reaction of "input photon and convert energy into motor neuron charge potential" had to have been the actual chemical process that eventually developed the first neuron to begin with. It was only after MUCH more evolution that avoidance of eating one's own species would've been possible by visual inspection of the prey. However, it's true it could have been a 'taste' signal where the scales of your own species had a bad enough taste that you spit it out rather than eating it, and that can be accomplished also with a brain of only a few neurons.
        • Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
          Liver/kidneys are organs where toxins are filtered, from the prey the predator consumes. I am not a biologist obviously. Because of the "food chain" actually being a pyramid, those organs contain the same "toxins" that are to be avoided, exponentially accumulating in whatever "organ" had the function to add resiliency by storing these toxins.
          • quantadev 2y ago
            Oh, I see. You expected people to infer "toxins" from the words "resilience/filter". Got it. However, liver eating is a moot point regardless, because evolutionary theory would suggest eating toxins would have a bad taste/smell, so that organ would simply be avoided, while eating the rest. So it has no bearing on whether cannibalism happens or not.
            • Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
  • Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
    Artifacts of evolution such as tribalism/xenophobia are the most obvious examples/analogs. But really, and "slightly" varied instance of yourself is the "most" likely to compete for the same, infinite pool of resources.
  • smolder 2y ago
    The success of birds, bees, trees, plankton, mammals and so on. Many life forms have been rendered obsolete when the right adaptation comes along and forms a new branch.
  • jjk166 2y ago
    The second sentence of the comment.