In a message dated 11/19/99 10:05:02 AM Pacific Standard Time, jr@shasta.com writes:
> In further support of your comments, I'd add that evolution may select for
> short-lived individuals in order to speed up the process. By analogy, a
species
> that reproduces every three months has the ability to adapt to a changing
> environment more successfully than a species that takes three decades to
> reproduce.
>
> A short life span represents nature's way of increasing the clock rate, so
to
> speak, for a given population, thereby accelerating the rate of evolution
and
> adaptability for that population, and in turn, increasing its chances to
thrive
> as a species (although not so much as individuals).