The Evolutionary Game: How did Elephants survive the onslaught?

 

Another interactive lecture delivered by Meuianga (honorable) Mera Te Aì 'Enge'ite, chief scientific officer of the Reptilian Starfleet

Cadets, as you know, the evolutionary game, as you know, has many facets. So, there are many ways used by Earth’s creatures to cool down while making an effort. Let me make an example for you -- it will test your analysis skills. Let me show you this image of these two large animals on the screen.

You see two similar creatures of about the same size. As you already know from your training material about Earth, the one on the left is called “Elephant.” The ape scientists classify it as “Loxodonta Africana.” The other, on the right, is a wooly mammoth, also called mammuthus primigenius. You know that it is an extinct species today. You know that these animals existed (and the elephant still exists) together with the current dominant ape species, the naked ape called Homo Sapiens. There is clear evidence that the naked apes hunted both species using simple weapons, and it may well be that they hunted the mammoth to extinction. Instead, the Elephant survived, although nowadays he risks extinctions, too, because the apes have much better weapons. But let’s not get into that -- it is clear that the naked apes hunted mammoths with the same simple weapons they were using for hunting elephants not very long ago. The question for you, cadets, is how is it that elephants survived while the mammoths died out?

-- Ah… Meuianga. This is surely an interesting question.

-- Really. How that could be?

-- These two animals look very similar, indeed.

-- Of course, apart from one being furry, and the other not…. But it means only that one of the two lived in a colder climate, is that right?

Yes, cadets, the mammoth lived in a cold climate, in the Northern regions of the planet. That’s why it has that thick coat of fur. The Elephant, instead, lived, and still lives, in equatorial regions. It doesn’t need fur. But how would that affect their ability to escape being hunted by the Naked Apes?

-- Maybe it is what you told us before about the naked apes, Meuianga. The Elephant is naked.
-- Maybe it sweats? Just like the naked apes do?
-- That allows the elephant to cool down under effort? Is this the reason?

Not so simple, cadets. I can tell you that the elephant does not have a high density of sweat glands on its body. Nothing like the naked apes, which sweat all the time. Actually it has almost no sweat glands on most of its skin, except at the bottom of its feet. But those glands can hardly cool the body of the creature. They must be used mainly to mark the territory. As the elephant walks, it leaves a scent trail on its tracks. This is something interesting, too. Don’t you think so?

-- Indeed, Meuianga. Why should a creature leave a scent trail that’s easy for predators to follow?

-- Strange things happen on this strange planet. Naked apes and large beasts leaving a trail to make it easier for predators to hunt them.

Oh, cadets, you can’t imagine how many more strange things you still have to learn about this planet. And, yet, no matter how strange these things may be, never forget that for everything that exists in an ecosystem, on any planet of the galaxy, there has been a natural selection process that has led it to exist. And that’s true also for elephant feet leaving a trail of smell.

-- Well, Meuianga, I can imagine that it would make no difference for such a large beast to leave a trail of smell. It is so big that it couldn’t hide its trail anyway.

-- Yes, it seems reasonable. Yet, why make things easier for predators?

Cadets, think about this: what if the beast doesn’t have natural predators?

-- Oh… in that case it wouldn’t matter, of course, Meuianga.

-- You mean it is because it is so big?

-- Then, yes, we can see that most predators would have a hard time killing an elephant.

-- But didn’t you tell us that the naked apes hunt elephants? Then it has at least one predator.

Correct, cadet Lipotzoot'itan. Let me rephrase my sentence. What if the beast has just one natural predator? And you surely read in your training material that the naked apes have a very poor sense of smell….

-- Meuianga, you keep surprising us.

-- Indeed, amazing things you are telling us.

-- These elephants would not be worse off by leaving a smell trail for a predator that can’t follow it. Hence, natural selection did not select it out.

-- And so they probably use the scent to mark their territory.

Exactly, cadets. Exactly. But let’s go back to our initial question: why did Mammoths go extinct but not elephants? We don’t know if Mammoths had the same kind of sweat glands in the feet, but that couldn’t have had much to do with the fact that the naked apes exterminated them. So, there is something else to be considered here. Do you remember that I was telling you that elephants don’t have sweat glands on their bodies? If you think about that, it makes plenty of sense. With such a large body, the ratio of surface to volume is small, so sweat glands, if they had them, would only cool down the outer skin, but do very little to cool the whole beast.

-- Yes, Meuianga, we can see your point.

-- Sweating a lot would not be useful for such a large beast.

-- But then, how is that they managed to survive the hunting by the naked apes?

And you have the answer right in front of you. Look at the image. Look at it carefully. Don’t you see the difference? It is glaringly obvious.

-- Meuianga, maybe we are not good cadets

-- Maybe we are a little dumb.

-- They should kick us out of the Starfleet academy.

But, no, cadets, no! You are not dumb. You see, I have given this lecture to many classes of Starfleet cadets, and I can see how difficult it is for you to see something that it is so obvious once you notice it. You just need to learn. And for that you have to learn how to learn. It is for this reason that you are here. So, let me give you just a hint. A single word. Ears.

-- Ah….. the ears

-- Yes, the ears…. How couldn’t we notice the ears.

-- The elephant has such big ears! The mammoth has much smaller ones.

-- But what does it mean? How is it helping elephants to survive?

Excellent question, cadet Nätsyeaypxit'ite. The first step to answer a question is to frame it in the right way. How do those large ears help elephants to survive? And the answer is in a single word: vascularization.

-- Oh…. now we see it!

-- So obvious!

-- How could we have missed it!

Yes, you have it now, cadets. The large ears of the elephant are highly vascularized. A lot of blood goes through them, and so it cools down as the elephant moves. Actually, they flap their ears a lot to cool them down. Then, the blood goes into the elephant's body, and it cools it from the inside. Wonderfully efficient for a large animal! Actually, their whole skin is also vascularized, and it cools the body in the same way. If you observe their normal behavior, you see that they use their flexible nose, their trunk, to spray water over their bodies. Another way to cool down. But the large ears are the elephant’s radiators. They are their secret weapons against the naked apes and their wonderful sweating glands.

I see that you are awed, cadets, and correctly so. An ecosystem is such a complex thing that it is always amazing. Sometimes bewildering. Then, you can now notice another facet of the story. You see, the naked apes called “humans” evolved in a hot climate in the continent called Africa. The same place where elephants lived. So, naked apes and elephants co-evolved. It was one of those cases called “arms races.” The two species evolved together, both improving their metabolic efficiency. And not just that, also their social skills, but we’ll see that later. In any case, the naked apes couldn’t hunt down elephants by wearing them down, and so the elephant survived. Then, when the apes moved northward, they encountered another similar species, the mammoths. Unfortunately for the mammoths, they had never encountered those hunting apes, and they didn’t have the time to evolve an efficient cooling system. And so they were exterminated in a relatively short time, perhaps just a few tens of thousands of years. See? Everything clicks together! Evolution is a fascinating game, although also a cruel one. Those who lose the game, must die. It is the same everywhere in the universe.

-- Indeed, Meuianga

-- We are truly amazed…. Actually awed

-- Even bewildered. That may be a better way of saying it.

-- But, Meuianga, how about us, the reptilians? How do we compare with these creatures from Earth?

Oh…. that’s another facet of the story, cadet Runga'itan. We are reptilians of the kind called “saurian.” Our metabolic cooling system is all inside our body. It is where we continuously pump air, and -- yes -- we do sweat, in the sense that we evaporate water. But inside, not outside! It is much more efficient than the method that the naked apes use. But, on the whole, these creatures are resourceful and clever, and if we ever were to come to fight each other, well, it would be an interesting story.

-- Meuianga, you really think that Earth’s apes could defeat the mighty Reptilian Stellar Empire?

-- That could never be!

-- We can’t even imagine such a thing.

You never know, cadets, you never know…..

Lectures by Meuianga Mera

Why Naked Apes have Small Mouths. Explained by Meuianga Mera, Chief Scientist of the Reptilian Starfleet

The Red Mouthed Apes: A Lecture by Meuianga Mera, Chief Scientific Officer of the Reptilian Starfleet

The Naked Ape -- A Tale Told in Space

The Reptilian Mirage Suit: Learning the Purpose of Human Ears

The Evolutionary Game: How did Elephants survive the onslaught