| The recent (possible) re-discovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker in Arkansas has got me thinking a bit. For instance, take a species which has evolved to a certain level of competence among the fittest, a degree to which it functions at the top of its respective ecological stratum. This species is wiped out...literally, no more left...what is the possibility of this species evolving to its exact previous state years, decades, centuries, milleniums, eons, etc. down the road? Not to say that this is the case for the elusive Ivory billed Woodpecker of Arkansas. I understand that this question poses a bit of a paradox seeing as how if a species has become extinct it could not have been the "fittest," however, species have the possibility of becoming extinct through a panoply of reasons. Self-annihilation, large meteors...etc.... Can life re-invent itself? And, just for fun, is it possible that the ivory billed woodpecker of arkansas has done just this? |
