Evolution in the News:
- The more successful species are the ones that have evolved and diversified in many different environments, such as most modern birds, and several types of fish.
- However, these species don’t necessarily have a lesser threat of becoming extinct.
- The less successful species are the ones that only have a few types of species such as the crocodile or the alligator.
- "The timing of the rate increases does not correspond to the appearance of key characteristics that have been invoked to explain the evolutionary success of these groups, such as hair on mammals or mammals’ well-coordinated chewing ability or feathers on birds," said study leader Michael Alfaro of UCLA.
- The rate of how the different animals diversify does not relate agree with the characteristics that have been referred to explain the success of certain groups, as it relates to evolution. (Paraphrased)
- Scientists still are unsure why there are so many birds, fish, and mammals.
Reflection:
I chose this particular story because the title “Mammals Beat Reptiles in the Battle of Evolution” intrigued me. I found it interesting because normally I would have thought reptiles would be the “winners” since they have been around for so much longer. However, according to this article a animal is considered successful if it has “evolved and diversified into many types of environments”. I would have thought an animal would have been successful if it had lasted for a long period of time and still thrived today. Nevertheless, now that I have read this article, “successful” makes a lot of sense to me. Of course a animal is more successful when it has thrived and had enough offspring to create different species. I am not necessarily interested in science, generally, but I am interested in the whole concept of evolution, because I have never really studied it in depth before.
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