Comment on Fingies
djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
people often think of evolution as this purely positive force. very “survival of the fittest” types. the horse is a great example that evolution sometimes ends up making very very silly creatures.
naught101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s survival of the genetic line that reproduces enough to stay alive. The weird shit is often related to path dependence, or is just not enough of a detriment to affect evolutionary outcomes.
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Horses must have plenty of good evolutionary traits, because even without human breeding they’re very successful creatures. I guess they don’t reproduce quickly, so that isn’t it. I guess they can’t shrug off injuries. They must be really good at not getting caught by predators, so they live enough to have at least a couple of foals.
naught101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, I think they also evolved on steppes and open plains, where running fast is not too often super dangerous, so breaking a leg is not common enough to counter balance the advantages of being fast.
xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
More like a couple of FOOLS! HA!
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
If a pair of animals (humans included) can raise >2.1 offspring that have >2.1 offspring themselves, that’s potentially a functioning species. Now, humans tend not to like this minimum requirement because we frown on dying as grandparents at age 30, but it works fine from a species point of view. That’s why the answer to “But how does [animal] deal with [common issue] in the wild” is usually “it dies”
naught101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah. It dies (more often after procreating a couple of times). Death is also useful at a species level because it makes space for new (potentially fitter) individuals