eli5 : how did different animals come from common ancestors
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Just look at domestic dogs as a perfect recent example.
Not that long ago at all, all dogs were wolves. But after we domesticated dogs we applied artificial selection to them, and a group of animals that used to be all pretty much the same became radically different, with examples as extreme as chihuahuas and great danes. And this was just because different selective pressures were put on different subpopulations.
Natural selection can do the same thing. Take elephants and strand them on an island with insufficient food for large size and what happens? You get a species of small elephant. Meanwhile on the mainland the elephants continue to be large, and might get furry as they move further North.
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