I hear folks saying bugs are dying off because of changes in the environment, but shouldn’t bugs be some of the best equipped to handle changes? I imagine they reproduce faster than humans, and so I’d think their genes could adjust faster as well. You’d think we’d be having a worse time than bugs as the environment changes?
In: Biology
People have a fundamental misunderstanding of how things like adaptation work. Individuals don’t adapt. The ones that are least suited to their environments just die. The ones that are better suited live and reproduce, and the cycle continues. If the entire population of a species is so poorly situated to its environment that they can’t reproduce at replacement rate, then that species will slowly (or sometimes not so slowly) just cease to exist.
Adaptation is only faster in insects because they reproduce faster, but reproducing quickly doesn’t necessarily make you suited to your environment.
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