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Young siberian girls.
© AMNH, Ross MacPhee |
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Extinctions Restructure Life on Earth
No matter what their causes, extinctions are a primary force in evolutionary change. Charles Darwin theorized that extinction was only a sideline of the evolutionary process, taking place when species were out-competed by more highly evolved organisms. It has become clear, however, that extinctions have dramatically affected the evolution of life on Earth. That’s because the bigger the shake-up, the more the new ecosystem differs from the one that preceded the extinction.
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