Quote:
Originally Posted by Neapolitan
What does it mean that life passes from gazelle to the lion? What does it mean that the gazelle save the life of the other gazelles?
|
It's not in the gazelles interest to save other gazelles, or at least not by it's martyrdom. It's death is a consequence of the lion's actions and perhaps it's weaknesses compared to other gazelles, but it may just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Survival of the fittest is not a term invented by Darwin, not even a biologist, so be careful you don't misinterpret it. Over evolutionary time, gazelles who are "less fit" - and fit is a relative term which varies with abiotic and biotic environment - reproduce less often or with less success than fit ones. The difference may not be big for it to have important repercussions a million years down the line. "Survival of the fittest" should be changed for something like "more successful reproduction of the fit, possibly across many generations". It just doesn't have the same kind of oompf to it.
The questions you pose can be answered with modern biology perfectly well. I rant about it all the time, but I think people have a tendency to skip my posts because they may write the same thing which caused me to write a response in the first place only days later.
