• Question: How do animals evolve over time? Is it the enviroment, maybe the atmosphere? And its probably likely that we will also evolve over time, but thats what i think. I want to hear your oppinions if possible! =] thanks

    Asked by zer0air to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 17 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by courteney.
    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      You are right that the environment and also the atmosphere play a huge role in how animals evolve. A great example is the fox family. Foxes that live in cold environments have evolved small ears and are short-legged because they need to keep all the heat in, while fox species living in the desert have huge ears with which they can lose some excess heat and really long legs keeping them from the hot ground.

      And you are also right about continuous evolution – we will never stop evolving (unless we go extinct).

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Sometimes, animals go for millions of years without really changing, because they are well adapted the environment. But then if the environment changes suddenly, then evolution happens really quickly and they change loads, before reaching a stable period with little change again.

      Humans are evolving too. If you look back over the past 6 million years at fossil remains, humans have grown larger brains, changed from walking on four legs to two, and have become smaller and weaker. What will the future hold for us?

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Animals adapt over time if they need to. It takes a long time (1000’s of years) so if something happens that humans need to adapt to a change in our environment we probably will evolve!

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Great answers given by the others! I would add that it’s very difficult to predict how a species will evolve in the future because it’s hard to tell what it is possible for it to evolve into, and what parts of the environment have the bigger effects.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Great answers by all. Environment, disease, competition with other species, all will act as reasons for evolution to happen. As was said, some animals have not changed that much over millions of years, such as sharks which are essentially the same as they were at the time of the dinosaurs. If there is no benefit to change then you will not change.

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