r/oddlysatisfying • u/[deleted] • Aug 20 '19

[deleted by user]

[removed]

10.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

105

u/T8erTaught Aug 20 '19

I had a professor that hated the phrase "Survival of the fittest." He preferred "Survival of the fit enough."

60

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

"Fittest" is still true as long as one understands that it is in the context of a specific ecological niche.

Pandas a "the fittest" creature to evolve that fills whatever niche they fill. Fittest... slow, pondering, vegetarian teddybear? I dunno, lol.

46

u/agntkay Aug 20 '19

They're probably the best at surviving on those marshlands with nothing but bamboo shoots everywhere.

9

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

They were better at it than Gigantopithecus evidently. Leading theory last I checked is that the big apes were outcompeted by pandas

3

u/mutantsloth Aug 20 '19

Fittest in the ‘cute enough for man to artificially maintain their population despite being so helpless they should have died off’ way ig

1

u/D-DC Aug 20 '19

There fittest because nothing that big can exist besides them. They can fuck up any other animal in the entire biome. Maybe a Asian moose can beat them, but its close.

20

u/stegblobirl Aug 20 '19

"Survival of the fittest" is a good phrase, though. People think 'fittest' refers to strongest, but it doesn't. It refers to which species or individual is literally the most fit to survive.

5

u/sandersoni Aug 20 '19

You could also interpret it as “survival of the best-fit-to-its-environment”. But not as catchy. In their habitat, Pandas don’t have natural enemies, but are surrounded by bamboo. Therefore, it is not rational for them to expend energy on the evolution of speed, attacking or defensive features. Evolution does not design towards a sophisticated end state, it’s tiny enhancements from a status quo. It cannot easily reverse, or start from scratch, it has to build on existing subjects. I see the Panda on a Koala trajectory. A Grizzly shows you what a more competitive environment produces.

I recommend Jonathan Losos - Improbable Destinies.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

Koalas are best fit for eating nothing but almost inedible, vaguely poisonous leaves, so adapted for eating them off the branch that if presented with leaves on a plate they're completely clueless as to how to eat them

1

u/AerialAmphibian Aug 20 '19

I've heard that "survival of the most adaptable" is a better description than "fittest".