How are animals/organisms with short lifespans such as mayflies not constantly mutating/evolving?
In: Biology
They have evolved into a local optimum. This means that any small change in their genes would be for the worse and that such lines would become extinct or mutate back. There is always some genetic variation but it is clustered around an optimal sequence. Evolution does still happen but it requires big mutations to find an even more optimal species or the environment would have to change making their current species less suited.
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