Talk:Living fossil

Funny that I was thinking about whether we had this or not today in the car, even composing a few paragraphs in my head, to discover not only that we do have it, but that it was created yesterday! 21:00, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

New section for currently known mechanisms?
I added this text tonight:
 * Today, the mechanism is known: when selection pressure is lessened, or favors traits the organism already possesses to be successful in the current niche, stabilizing selection occurs, which favors the existing, successful body plan; stabilizing selection is the opposite of disruptive selection.

I wanted to know what you thought of whether a new, short section should be added. The mechanism also hold true for all other organisms in a steady-state non-selective pressure environment requiring adaptation which brings traits towards the mean. Kassorlae (talk) 06:25, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Basically
If it works, the environment(s) in which it operates (or can operate) persist(s) and 'nothing that can fill its niche more effectively and completely comes along' (there will be some species that coexist) then it will persist.' That is why 'living fossils' exist, some bits of human anatomy exist, and why (sometimes) things - the 'shift key' (rather than an upw3ard arrow) and the 'scroll lock key' on your keyboard - exist. Anna Livia (talk) 19:28, 29 November 2017 (UTC)