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Asked by mrgenius to Faye, Martin, Mus, Pete on 25 Apr 2012.
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Pete Etchells answered on 25 Apr 2012:
That’s an interesting one, thanks! I would have to say that the answer to the second part of your question would have to be humans. We’re the most highly developed of all species, and I think we’re going to be around for a long time to come.
As to which animal has evolved the fastest, my guess would actually be bacteria and viruses. They have the ability to reproduce at an incredibly fast rate, and because of this, it means they can adapt to their surroundings (or in other words, evolve) very quickly. That’s part of the reason why we can’t find a cure for the common cold – because it reproduces so quickly, it adapts to the medicine we try to use!
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Faye Didymus answered on 29 Apr 2012:
Hi mrgenius. I think the most successful animal is the human! We’re pretty good at lots of stuff, don’t you think?! I’m not sure what animal evolved fastest! Good question 🙂
Comments
mrgenius commented on :
How are humans evolving?
Pete commented on :
Humans evolve in the same way as everything else! There’s a massive amount of variation in our genes, which goes some of the way to explain why we’re so different to one another. And those difference mean that some people are better at some things than other people – in particular, being able to fend off attacks from viruses or bacteria. If someone isn’t very good at fighting a particular disease, then they might die before they have chance to have children. This means that their genes don’t get passed on, and only those people who CAN fight the disease survive to have children. Over a long period of time, the majority of people will have that defence, which means the disease might start to disappear, unless it evolves itself. That’s just one example, but if you imagine this sort of process happening for lots of things (maybe genes for personality types, or physical parts of us that are or are not useful), then that’s how we are evolving.