How failure to adapt would cause extinction

sykosat2004 | 13:40 Thu 27th Oct 2005 | Science

8 Answers

Hey can anyone name any cases where a species has failed to adapt and has then been extinct? Cheers

Free Energy

Leap years

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WoWo

The obvious one is the DoDo.

It was a large flight less bird which had no natural predators on it's home island, this made it develop in such a way that when humans arrived rather than running into the forest it walked up to them with no fear.

This made easy pray for the hungry sailors, then came the introduction of dogs and pigs to the island who ate the dodo or the dodo's eggs.

Drusilla

It's possible to argue that Neanderthals failed to adapt quickly enough to a warmer environment and population pressures from early homo sapiens. However, despite remarkable advances in DNA, no one can say conclusively whether Neanderthals merely died out, were wiped out, or even possibly bred out.

qapmoc

Hi sykosat, well you could argue that any species which has become extinct did so because it could not adapt fast enough to changes in it's environment, if those changes are natural or intrusion of new species (included humans) is not the point. The problem for all species is that it takes many generations to adapt but the changes wiping them out may take place in only one generation.

qapmoc

Hi Drusilla, a thought just occured to me that if the early Homo-saps were cannibals (possible maybe) then it could be that the Neanderthals were barbicued to extinction.

loudickson71

qap, that's a ridiculous suggestion. Everyone knows why neanderthalus became extint. The reason is what scientists call 'the first wave' or early internet. This led them all to stay at computers all day, instead of breeding. They were wiped out in two decades.