Are creatures that have stopped evolving failures?

[Violent Rainbow]

I was watching a documentary about the coelacanth, that fish that everyone thought was extinct but is actually still alive and they kept mentioning that it "hasn't changed since the days of dinosaurs" as if that's some big achievement. They say the same thing about many other creatures like crocodiles and sharks. Can someone explain that to me? Because you know what OUR species has done since the days of the dinosaurs? Oh nothing much, just evolved from literal rat squirrels into the smartest and most dominant species on earth! So tell me how exactly is standing still until the sun explodes an achievement?

[it's love]

uhhh it's an achievement because they're still alive? if they haven't changed since the days of the dinosaurs (sounds like a big hyperbole) then they must either be really adaptable to multiple environments, or their environment hasn't changed much despite all that time

[Marius]

Eventually it will. Animals that stop evolving will die out. Animals have to adapt to us humans and the changing climate at the moment if they don't.. It's the end for them. If we humans can use them or they can live in our 'cities' then they will survive and evolve even more. Unless we don't need them anymore, like cows, pigs and all that in the near future. Lets take horses. We don't really need them anymore, but they are still here for our own recreation. If they are tame and behave well they will spread their genes and those genes will pass on thus evolve.

[𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕋𝔼ℝ]

Yeah I believe they are called the Living Fossil, as far as evolution goes, I don't have a definite answer, but I believe in any population there's a fundamental equation called The Hardy Weinberg equation which focuses on explaining genetic equilibrium in population. I believe this equilibrium is affected by a plethera of factors like saltation or genetic variation (natural selection) maybe just the condition of the species were so that they just weren't able to influence the genetic equilibrium like Crazed Rabbit said.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Crazed Rabbit:

uhhh it's an achievement because they're still alive? if they haven't changed since the days of the dinosaurs (sounds like a big hyperbole)e

You should probably go look at information about these amazing - incredibly unchanged, incredibly ancient - fish.

It's not hyperbole. they really are the same as their fossils.

[Irene ❤]

I think there is no win or lose competition in evolution, it's just things naturally change shape over the cause of actions. If the fish swims a lot or eats a lot, the next generation grows bigger. They don't grow bigger to win and those that doesn't grow doesn't' mean they lost. We humans have stopped growing as well. We rely on tools.

[it's love]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Originally posted by Crazed Rabbit:

uhhh it's an achievement because they're still alive? if they haven't changed since the days of the dinosaurs (sounds like a big hyperbole)e

You should probably go look at information about these amazing - incredibly unchanged, incredibly ancient - fish.

It's not hyperbole. they really are the same as their fossils.

damn it appears you're right, that's really cool

[𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕋𝔼ℝ]

Originally posted by Irene ❤:

I think there is no win or lose competition in evolution, it's just things naturally change shape over the cause of actions. If the fish swims a lot or eats a lot, the next generation grows bigger. They don't grow bigger to win and those that doesn't grow doesn't' mean they lost. We humans have stopped growing as well. We rely on tools.

Change over action sounds like Lamarckism.

[Radene]

Life just goes on, and nobody is keeping score, really.

[Thlormby]

If you have survived so long without needing to evolve, that means you're already great at surviving and don't need to adapt anymore

[gugnihr]

No it's the opposite of a failure, evolution happens when it needs to, to solve a problem, creatures that exist for such long periods of time without any change means their original form was already good enough that they do not need to change

[Radene]

Originally posted by Benner:

If you have survived so long without needing to evolve, that means you're already great at surviving and don't need to adapt anymore

Until the next impact event, at least.

[Dracoco OwO]

If you think Crocodilians are failures you are wrong.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Evolution isn't change for the sake of change. It's not a "failure" to do what works.

Originally posted by Irene ❤:

If the fish swims a lot or eats a lot, the next generation grows bigger.

It doesn't work like that. There's natural variation in the species, and the variations that are best adapted to the conditions are more likely to survive and pass on their genes. Eating a lot doesn't make the next generation bigger; rather, if being bigger tends to result in more reproduction, then more "bigger" genes will be passed to the next generation.

[Moogal]

They just reached the best possible version of themselves.

[Radene]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Evolution isn't change for the sake of change. It's not a "failure" to do what works.

Evolution also isn't something anyone or anything "does", it just happens. In that regard, we can't even talk in terms of "success" or "failure", since nobody keeps score or a project progression chart in the first place.