the.com/coevolution
Two species locked in an arms race, each the other's gym and grim reaper.
means The process by which two interacting species exert evolutionary pressure on each other, each adapting in response to the other's adaptations over generations.
from Built plainly from co- ('together') plus evolution (from Latin evolutio, 'an unrolling,' originally describing the unrolling of a scroll, later borrowed by biology for the gradual unfolding of species change). The term 'coevolution' itself is a 20th-century coinage, popularized in evolutionary biology to describe reciprocal adaptation between species — like flowers and their pollinators, or predators and prey — rather than evolution happening in isolation.
- classic example
- flowers and pollinators shaping each other's shapes
- red queen idea
- must keep evolving just to stay even
- can be hostile
- predator speed versus prey speed, forever escalating
- not always war
- mutualism counts too, like gut bacteria and you