• MuchPineapples@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Ah this actually cleared things up for me. Yellow coat is probably more evolutionary beneficial, and then even if a quarter of the young die its no big deal, just lay more eggs or whatever.

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      It goes against the simplified idea of evolution, in that, having a huge amount of off-spring die for no reason should generally be selected against since it’s wasteful.

      But evolution isn’t a straight march to a finish line, it can only use what it has to work with and it’s entirely possible for a branch of it to get stuck in weird specific ways that aren’t helpful.