• @Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    36
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    They just reached top possible performance for their specific niche. They’re basically perfect, so there is little need for evolution to change anything - random selection keeps selecting the same traits for millions of years because those are the ones that work and manage to get them to reproduce.

    I like to think of it as having maxed out one specific talent tree for that environment.

    • @Aloha_Alaska@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      187 months ago

      Exactly! They didn’t explore the “aerial flight” or “beautiful colors” tech tree at all, but are maxed on armor and chomping.

    • @kadu@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      107 months ago

      That’s not actually necessarily true. Even if we adopt this “top possible performance” thing, which isn’t how organisms work, you can’t guarantee their current set of traits would be this optimal maximum.

      Evolution can only work with traits already present, or small additions or deletions. It can’t jump around. Meaning, for instance, perhaps a crocodile capable of shooting a literal stream of acid would be even more optimized for this environment - but such a trait can’t appear out of thin air, and the necessary stepping stones won’t be selected.

      • @EpicGamer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        47 months ago

        They might also be more succesfull if they can put sticks and stones together to eventually create a military industrial complex in order to hunt prey using a 50 Caliber machine gun.

      • @repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        37 months ago

        Sounds like machine learning with a very small learning rate. You will most likely end up in a local minimum ie. no acid shooting (it would be cool and terrifying)

  • @MuhammadJesusGaySex@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    267 months ago

    Another fun fact about crocodiles, and alligators is that they actually have the immune systems that conservatives think they have.

    But for real, they are trying to make new antibiotics from crocodile and alligator blood.

  • @moistclump@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    247 months ago

    They’re kinda scared of hippos, so much so that hippo baby’s use them for teething and they just kinda take it.

  • Th4tGuyII
    link
    fedilink
    157 months ago

    Living every rich man’s dream - lie in a pool all day and go safari hunting without a licence. What more could one possibly need??

  • zib
    link
    fedilink
    107 months ago

    When you reach max level, you stop leveling.