Darwin Wrong! Competition No Part of Evolution

New biological research suggests competition for "living space" was the key factor in evolution, according to a new study.

Generations of teachers and researchers have concluded that
Charles Darwin's theory of evolutionary development is
predicated on a world in which organisms battled for supremacy. Only the fittest survived, according to the completely unscientific theory of "social Darwinism."

Not so, according Ph.D. student Sarda Sahney and colleagues at the University of Bristol published today in "Biology Letters."

Using fossils as their guide, the researchers concluded that
evolutionary patterns over 400 million years of history
suggest that animals living on land, amphibians, reptiles,
mammals and birds developed "biodiversity" as a result of
the availability of living space.

"Competition did not play a big role in the overall pattern
of evolution," said a co-author on the study, Professor Mike
Benton.

For instance, when birds developed the ability to fly,
"suddenly the sky was literally the limit."

When the reptilian species of dinosaurs died off in a sudden
chilling of the planet - the ice age - mammals came to the
forefront simply because they now had room to move.

According to Professor Stephen Stearns of Yale University,
"...And in general, what is the impetus to occupy new
portions of ecobiological space if not to avoid competition
with the species in the space alreaedy ocupied?"