survival of the group often depends on competition among different groups, often related to changing environmental factors — loss of habitat, increase or decrease in temperature or moisture levels, changes in the saltiness of aquatic and soil environments, catastrophes like fires, floods, earthquakes, underwater landslides, etc. So, for example, it's NOT natural selection that determines whether the dull and sluggish opossum or the sleek and daring cheetah survives; it's ecology, interaction among different groups and the environment (and so far the opossum is outscoring the cheetah in the ecological competition!).
(c)
Intra- versus interspecific competition.
Many people have the mistaken notion that natural selection involves, for example, competition between lions and zebras. Not at all. Natural selection is NOT lion versus zebra; it's
lion versus lion
(which can catch a zebra) and
zebra versus zebra
(which can escape the lion). In other words, natural selection is NOT INTER
specific
competition ( between species); it's INTRA
specific competition
( within species). By analogy to humankind, natural selection is competition among classmates and friends for dates on a Saturday night and jobs at McDonald's, or competition among brothers and sisters for family favors. Natural selection is the
ultimate sibling rivalry,
a struggle to the death among members of the same species. Even members of a plant species compete with one another (not consciously, of course) for water and minerals from the soil and a place in the sun. Some variants of a species are more likely to leave more offspring to the next generation than others, but
at most
the
intraspecific competition of natural selection
produces
variation within kind,
NOT change from one kind to another.
Natural selection, yes; evolution, no.
A classic lab kit sold to demonstrate natural selection does nothing of the sort. The kit includes
two different species
of flour beetle,
Tribolium confusum
and
T. castaneum.
By changing temperature and moisture conditions and adding predators and different hiding places, students can see one beetle species survives better under this condition, the other beetle species under that. Competition between different species as conditions change is
ecological competition
, not at all natural selection among members of the same group.
Evolutionists, however, did report an example of natural selection that once occurred in a flour beetle experiment. A mutant beetle occurred in one species, and offspring of that beetle eventually wiped out other members of that species — natural selection in action. The supposedly "new and improved" beetle species then lost the ecological competition with the other beetle species under conditions that the pre-mutant beetle species formerly won. As evolutionists recognize,
winning the natural selection battle can lead to losing the ecological war
— "
mischievous results
" of natural selection one evolutionist called it.
(d)
Succession versus evolution
. Evolution is a
hypothetical
process that is supposed to change a few simple forms over time into many complex and varied forms. There is a real process of change through time in which a few life forms
are
followed by a series of more and more complex and varied forms, but the
real
process is
ecological succession
, NOT evolution. If you watched an area of bare rock over time, as farmers and scientists have, you could observe a series of changes from lichens to moss, ferns, shrubs, and trees, but the lichens didn't evolve into the moss, nor the moss into the ferns, etc. Rather, each living community changed the environment in ways that paved the way for the next community to move in. (Plants "move" by scattering spores and seeds which sprout when conditions are right.) Lichens can break down rock, producing enough soil for mosses. Mosses build more soil, and hold moisture, paving the way for shrubs. Shrubs break up the rock further, anchor the soil, and
(c)
Intra- versus interspecific competition.
Many people have the mistaken notion that natural selection involves, for example, competition between lions and zebras. Not at all. Natural selection is NOT lion versus zebra; it's
lion versus lion
(which can catch a zebra) and
zebra versus zebra
(which can escape the lion). In other words, natural selection is NOT INTER
specific
competition ( between species); it's INTRA
specific competition
( within species). By analogy to humankind, natural selection is competition among classmates and friends for dates on a Saturday night and jobs at McDonald's, or competition among brothers and sisters for family favors. Natural selection is the
ultimate sibling rivalry,
a struggle to the death among members of the same species. Even members of a plant species compete with one another (not consciously, of course) for water and minerals from the soil and a place in the sun. Some variants of a species are more likely to leave more offspring to the next generation than others, but
at most
the
intraspecific competition of natural selection
produces
variation within kind,
NOT change from one kind to another.
Natural selection, yes; evolution, no.
A classic lab kit sold to demonstrate natural selection does nothing of the sort. The kit includes
two different species
of flour beetle,
Tribolium confusum
and
T. castaneum.
By changing temperature and moisture conditions and adding predators and different hiding places, students can see one beetle species survives better under this condition, the other beetle species under that. Competition between different species as conditions change is
ecological competition
, not at all natural selection among members of the same group.
Evolutionists, however, did report an example of natural selection that once occurred in a flour beetle experiment. A mutant beetle occurred in one species, and offspring of that beetle eventually wiped out other members of that species — natural selection in action. The supposedly "new and improved" beetle species then lost the ecological competition with the other beetle species under conditions that the pre-mutant beetle species formerly won. As evolutionists recognize,
winning the natural selection battle can lead to losing the ecological war
— "
mischievous results
" of natural selection one evolutionist called it.
(d)
Succession versus evolution
. Evolution is a
hypothetical
process that is supposed to change a few simple forms over time into many complex and varied forms. There is a real process of change through time in which a few life forms
are
followed by a series of more and more complex and varied forms, but the
real
process is
ecological succession
, NOT evolution. If you watched an area of bare rock over time, as farmers and scientists have, you could observe a series of changes from lichens to moss, ferns, shrubs, and trees, but the lichens didn't evolve into the moss, nor the moss into the ferns, etc. Rather, each living community changed the environment in ways that paved the way for the next community to move in. (Plants "move" by scattering spores and seeds which sprout when conditions are right.) Lichens can break down rock, producing enough soil for mosses. Mosses build more soil, and hold moisture, paving the way for shrubs. Shrubs break up the rock further, anchor the soil, and
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