Elegant examples of evolution

[Claymore]

I found this pretty interesting:

12 Elegant Examples of Evolution

 

[Good Life]

the comments are an interesting read!

 

[Phronesis]

Interesting:
Example 1:

In 2007, researchers showed that Indohyus — a 50 million-year-old, dog-sized member of the extinct raoellidae ungulate family — had ears, teeth and bones that resembled whales, not other raoellids.

Nice preadaptations for it to adapt to water.

Gene Flow, With Purpose. If dispersed by random animal migration, genes flowing across a region ought to dilute local pockets of genetic adaptation. But migration isn't as random as it seems: As seen in a population of great tits (the bird!) tracked in Oxfordshire, England since 1970, genes flow along channels of opportunity. Individual birds picking nesting spots best-suited to their particular traits, producing local adaptations in tiny parts of the same small forest.

Purposeful selection of agents selecting their environment and consequently adapting towards it?

Selection Finds Its Own Level. Since natural selection favors traits that increase fitness, it seems that populations should eventually become genetically homogeneous. But evolution isn't so one-dimensional: When researchers adjusted the color frequencies of wild guppy populations in Trinidad, they found that unusual variants — regardless of color — had higher survival rates. This is called frequency-dependent survival: selection favoring the rare and disfavoring the common, preventing a long-term homogeneity that — no matter how beneficial in the short term — might someday prove disastrous.

Foresight in biological evolutionary trajectories?

Interestingly none of these examples would have occurred without intelligence. Cellular and molecular intelligence.

 

[w1z4rd]

Interesting:
Example 1:

Nice preadaptations for it to adapt to water.

Arb speculation

 

[Phronesis]

No speculation, the ears, teeth and bones resembled that of whales. They developed before whales evolved.