Which animals have gone the wrong way in evolution? Also evolution, why are these animals so strange?

If the time scale is extended, it is very difficult for organisms not to deviate on the path of evolution, because there are too many forces guiding organisms to deviate.

From the smallest mold spores to the largest mammals, it is difficult for scientists to count how many species are living together on earth now, and it is even more difficult to count how many species have evolved in total in the history of the earth, but it is certain that all the species that have appeared on the earth are The vast majority of species—at least more than 90 percent—have gone extinct.

Sometimes species extinction occurs in mass extinction events, such as the five mass extinctions that have been defined by scientists. In these five events, most of the species that existed on the earth at that time suddenly disappeared in a very short period of time. Obviously this is caused by the rapid changes in the environment.

However, even in the absence of such a mass extinction event, or in the case of little environmental change, there will be a large number of biological extinctions, but the time scale is relatively long.

A species usually exists for 1 million to 11 million years. Higher species like mammals will actually exist for a shorter period of time, while lower species like marine invertebrates will exist for longer.

Most creatures are experiencing "chronic death", and the reason is basically that they are slowly entering the dead end of evolution, and in the end they can't extricate themselves and put their lives in it.

Why did biological evolution go astray?

There are many motives that make creatures deviate on the path of evolution, and it can even be said that almost all evolutionary motives are guiding creatures to deviate slowly.

Here I briefly summarize two of the more critical ones, one is the result of co-evolution and the other is the result of sexual selection.

We know that in order to survive, organisms will modify their bodies through genetic mutation to better adapt to the environment, but in fact, the environment here is not only the natural environment, but also the relationship between different organisms.

For example, in order to better capture prey, an animal may need to run faster. If it runs faster, the prey will adapt to this pressure, and sometimes it needs to run faster. Those Those who don't run fast enough will be eaten to extinction.

In this case, it is easy to enter an infinite loop. The predator must become faster because the prey is faster. Similarly, the prey can only be faster because the predator is faster. This situation is called synergy evolution.

Co-evolution would allow two species bound to each other to evolve some strange, highly specialized traits that would work so well for each other that at least one built on the other would be largely immune to extinction.

However, highly specialized traits can easily become a survival liability, especially if the environment changes slightly, and the two may become extinct.

I don't know, what animal do you think of when you see this? Anyway, what I want to say is the giant panda. This species has been unable to extricate itself in the dead end of evolution.

The current physiological characteristics of giant pandas are basically evolved in order to eat bamboo. For example, in order to eat bamboo better, their faces become large and round (this kind of big face has better chewing ability); in order to eat bamboo, they There is also an extra "finger", which is specially used to clamp the bamboo. These two characteristics make them lose many of their predatory abilities as bears and go further and further down the road of eating bamboo.

The most important thing is that because of the limited nutrition of bamboo, giant panda babies become very fragile. Basically, as long as the environment changes slightly, giant pandas can easily become extinct.

Giant pandas, known as living fossils, may have existed like this for 8 million years, which is far longer than the average mammalian species. So it's no surprise that it has gone a lot, just because of the species that co-evolved with them - bamboo is a very successful biological group on earth at this stage, so that giant pandas have survived until now, if not because of human activities too much Strong, it is estimated that they can live quite happily.

This story tells us that it is very important to find a good partner. Even if you cook a little by yourself, it is easy to lie down and win with good teammates, ^_^.

The evolutionary arms race between different species is well understood, but in fact there are also obvious interactions between different individuals of the same species, which can also allow organisms to evolve strange physiological characteristics.

One of the most obvious is sexual selection. In order to attract the opposite sex, animals will evolve some characteristics that have almost nothing to do with survival, until these strange characteristics slowly affect the survival of animals and become extinct.

A typical example is the peacock's tail feathers. It may be difficult for you to imagine what a peacock grows such a "big tail" for. With this heavy tail, they may have problems eating.

Not for survival, but also for survival, such characteristics also puzzled evolutionary biologists until they put forward the relevant thesis of sexual selection, speculating that these characteristics that are not related to survival are only to attract the opposite sex.

These traits may at first be evidence of the peacock's fitness, but it is clear that the peacock is pushing too hard, turning it into a liability.

There are many examples of this in nature, and the redundant features are just to attract the opposite sex and gain more opportunities for reproduction.

We conclude that on the road of biological evolution, whether a creature is for survival or reproduction, it will easily enter a dead end. If it is for survival, it is easy to be played by others, and if it is for reproduction, it is easy to be played by yourself. die.

Survival and reproduction are basically all the purposes of a species' existence, but it is obvious that these two purposes will lead creatures to a dead end, so it is normal for species to deviate, and it is strange for those that do not go extinct for a long time.

at last

Species survive and multiply on the earth. Sometimes it is really like the upgrade of monsters in the game. Each species will have some corresponding growth attribute points. He will add points according to the immediate needs of survival and reproduction. If intelligence is required, then He will add more attributes to intelligence, of course, sometimes agility and strength.

But this method of adding points is all to meet immediate needs. When the needs need to be adjusted due to changes in the game scene, the species will go extinct because of too much investment in a single attribute.

When we look at this way of adding points from the perspective of God, we will feel that the species has fallen into an evolutionary dead end, but it is difficult for species that are happily playing games to realize that they are wrong, and it is difficult to find the optimal point of addition method.