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> In fact, evolution has not worked to maximize life span, but only to make it sufficient to assure time for reproduction. Longer life spans would /slow down/
by paulsutter 12y ago
> In fact, evolution has not worked to maximize life span, but only to make it sufficient to assure time for reproduction.
Longer life spans would /slow down/ evolution. Evolutionary lines with very long lifetimes would evolve more slowly than evolutionary lines with shorter lifetimes, and would be quickly overtaken by them.
Of course, all of us alive today would be happy to make that trade off going forward ;)
- M8 12y agoDoes evolution matter for a species where every sick offspring is saved at birth?
- btilly 12y agoYes. Because we still have a situation where not every person becomes a parent, and those that do have wildly different numbers of offspring.
- delecti 12y agoBut does evolution select for evolutionary ability? If there aren't significant selection pressures then there's no use in adapting for adaptability.