Intermediates

I should point out one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet. EVERY individual organism is an intermediate.Your parents were intermediates between you and your grandparents. Your grandparents are intermediate between your parents and your great- greatgrandparents. And your great- greats were intermediate between you and your great- great- great- greatgrandparents. And so on.Every individual in that lineage was successful enough to leave at least one offspring. And that offspring likewise. Every individual was different from his or her parents, and his or her offspring likewise.The difference between any two adjacent generations would be small - often smaller than the difference between one individual and another from the same generation.Any genetically derived change in an individual from one generation to the next that increased the odds of survival and reproduction in the current environment would be more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations. The genes from which that trait originated would then increase in the general poplulation of individuals sharing a gene pool.Once a change in a population proved to provide a significant reproductive advantage in the current environment, similar genetically derived changes of the same type would conitunue to accumulate in the same direction. For example, if increased fur density or longer limbs were advantageous in a particular environment, then fur would continue to get thicker or limbs longer until there was no further advantage to be derived.These geneticaly derived changes in the frequency of traits in a population can accumulate over time. Again, each generation will be slightly - but just slightly - different from the one that came before. There will be no clear line where you can say that one individual was of one species and its offspring was of a different one. However, over enough generations, multiple changes will accumulate to such an extent that eventually one generation will be different enough from its ancestors to be considered a new species.This is a brief and incomplete description, but one that - if you really take the time to think about it - will be helpful in clarifying some issues for you. But keep in mind - every individual is an intermediate between its ancestors and its descendents.Edited by ZenMonkey, : No reason given.