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Timeline for Evolution of predatory elves

Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0

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May 14 at 23:41 history edited Monty Wild CC BY-SA 4.0
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May 14 at 23:33 comment added Monty Wild @Olle You are correct, they are two seperate things. When I said that evolution never backtracks, I meant that the actin/myosin system that is the fundamental building block of muscles isn't suddenly going to change to something much more efficient. Any single change is probably going to make the muscles less efficient/effective before accumulated changes make them more efficient or effective, and evolution doesn't do that.
May 14 at 12:27 comment added Olle "Evolution never backtracks" and "there is a physiological trade-off between speed and strength" are two separate and seemingly unconnected statements. The latter may be true, but the former is simply false. Or is your argument that hominid muscles are already perfectly optimized, so that in order for elf muscles to get better performance per unit muscle mass, humans would need to evolve toward less efficient muscles by comparison?
May 14 at 6:19 comment added Monty Wild @Shayne Yes, there is. Fast muscle tends to be anaerobic, while slow is aerobic. However, muscle power per unit mass/volume is pretty much the same. You can't increase that readily through evolution.
May 14 at 5:34 comment added Shayne Isn't there some sort of division in muscle between fast twitch fiber stuff (aparently cats are full of it) and regular muscle, with the major difference being that the fast stuff is more energy intensive rather than weaker, leading the animal to tire faster (hence cats needing to sleep most of the day and generally having reasonably poor stamina despite incredibly speed and agility). I wonder if thats a way out of the physics. Rather than slower, just burn energy quicker. Ie these elves have trash stamina and need a lot of sleep.
May 13 at 6:46 comment added Monty Wild @Pelinore Greater muscle density/efficiency is a thing that if it evolved, would probably never devolve. Other things, not so much.
May 12 at 13:39 comment added Pelinore Given the right environmental pressures evolution can also "rediscover" old phenotypes by the same (highly unlikely to the point were practically "never" is probably appropriate), similar or different genetic paths .. like the Aldabra rail .. and then there's convergent evolution from entirely different root stock, the long and short is evlution repeats itself all the time in various ways.
May 12 at 13:30 comment added Pelinore "evolutionary backtracking .. never happens" You think? let me remind of the word ativism atavistic mutations are a thing, as is the founder effect .. an atavistic mutation or few, an island or some other cause of population isolation, and Bobs your uncle, and boy does he look like a monkey! "never" is a strong word to use were you have there, and arguably wrong ;)
May 12 at 9:21 history edited Monty Wild CC BY-SA 4.0
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May 12 at 9:02 history answered Monty Wild CC BY-SA 4.0