It may have been PT Barnum or the
designer of the Field of Dreams who said that if we build it, they will come.
While they have been among the first to vocalize the concept, nature actually preempted them in its application. Whether we examine the fossil record or the depths of the sea, we find that nature
accommodates whatever niche is afforded by geologic or climatic processes. Is
there an environ too hostile for life? Presence not only of bacteria but also
of higher forms (e.g., worms) at volcanic vents suggests the adaptablity and
resiliance of life.
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The fossil record clearly demonstrates
that a new organism fairly rapidly replaces a life form that can no longer
survive in a given niche, be it geographically, geologically or
biologically-defined. The classic example is that of the various morphotypes
of saber tooth tigers, whose extinction and reinvention repeatedly filled
vacated niches four times in 28 million years. Intriguingly, preservation of
morphotype was at the expense of genotype, with unrelated families (not even
felidae) serially replacing those that went extinct. Was primate
evolution similarily a form of ecotrophism?. (Read more)
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Tuesday, 4 July 2017
Ecotrophic Character of Primate Evolution.
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