Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection

The problem with the exponential speciation is that you left out extinction.
When we go from say the first to split into 2 and then 4 etc, one or two of
the four may go extinct before continuing to split so instead of 4 going to
8 we may only have 3 going to 6 and so on. There is every indication that
about 99% of all species that ever existed are already extinct even though
there are IIRC about 1.5 million extant species, this means that there have
been about 150 million species which ever existed 148.5 million of which are
extinct.

--
Regards,
CMSchaum

"Sam" <sam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:t7PDf.8663$rH5.3153@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> This his something I can't recall every reading about, but I've been
> recently considering.
>
> Going back to the beginnings of the evolutionary process and the forces of
> natrual selection on Earth, does it not make sense that the rate at which
> new species appear would have increased over time? What I mean is,
> starting
> from the simplest examples of a multi-cellular organism, doing it's thing,
> reproducing and passing on traits, mutating and increasing genetic
> variation, being acted upon by natual selection which choses the fittest,
> etc... Over time in different enviroments populations follow different
> enough paths that the generational products can be considered different
> species. Now say the same process repeats and you get 4 species, then 8,
> then 16, then... Down the road you end up with larger populations,
> increasing the chances of mutations, and creating more "types of life" for
> that natural selection to work with, you end up with more and more
> parallel
> evolutionary processes all happening at the same time which increases the
> rate of diversifcation.
>
> I know this is an oversimplification, that every species does not spawn
> two
> more, you may get several or none. I'm just thinking of how it took
> several
> billion years to produce multi-cellular life but then only 500 million to
> make it to the complex life of today. It seems to me that the rate of
> diversity as a result of evolution would in fact increase with the
> diversity
> itself.
>
> Is this really the case or am I off base here?
>
>


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection
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  • Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection
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  • Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection
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    (talk.origins)
  • Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection
    ... >> Going back to the beginnings of the evolutionary process and the forces ... >> new species appear would have increased over time? ... >> make it to the complex life of today. ... >> diversity as a result of evolution would in fact increase with the ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: "Evolutionary Rate" from Natural Selection
    ... > about 99% of all species that ever existed are already extinct even though ... >> natrual selection on Earth, does it not make sense that the rate at ... >> diversity as a result of evolution would in fact increase with the ...
    (talk.origins)