Helix wrote:This is however, WRONG. As you yourself stated on page 1, the fittest survive. Who are the fittest? The ones that survive. Have you ever considered that the sponge might be so well-adapted to their surroundings that no change is necessary for this creature to be successful? The same we see in sharks and crocodiles. Their physiology has hardly changed the last 100 million years.
My point is: Evolution is not FORCED upon animals. There is no one saying 'you haven't changed the last million years! Go on and be something else now!'. Evolution is the name of the process that allows the 'better' genes to triumph over 'not so good' genes. (There is a good deal of chance involved here as well. Animals with 'good genes' can die a premature death as well, without passing on their genes. It is better to talk about 'survival of the fittest' , where 'fittest' means 'the one that reproduces')
First of all tuppence is a she.
Have you considered that sponges and sharks have not changed because they were perfectly designed for a specific purpose? Man has hunted sharks almost to the point of extinction, so they either need to evolve or they will cease to exist. The dodo bird is a good example of extinction because an animal could not adapt to a changing environment.