MR Pankaj Vallabh

Ecological Evolution of Species MR Pankaj Vallabh

It is an incontrovertible fact that organisms have changed or evolved, during the history of our earth. Our understanding of evolution today is based on Darwin's theory and variants of the theory 'Organisms with traits that give them an advantage over their competitors are more likely to pass on their traits to the next generation than those with traits that do not confer an advantage'. However all evolution cannot be explained by Darwin's theory.

Evolution of any species does not occur in isolation but always occurs in an environment and is influenced by that environment. The species need the survival of that environment for their own existence. We will see that an important factor in the evolution process is that any evolving organism does not damage or destroy the environment they live in. By considering this factor, we shall see that the evolution process leads to development of almost perfect traits in animals and organisms, suitable for their role in the environment. Also it will lead to wide diversity in the species inhabiting the environment.

Many times we see deadly viruses like Spanish Flu evolve and then die off within a limited span of time. Why are they not able to survive in spite of having better fitness than their competitors?

For explaining evolution, Natural selection deals with survivability, whereas this book addresses both survivability and sustainability.