Title: Evolution 11One of the unsolved puzzles of evolutionary theory is that of the Burgess Shale, a fossil record that shows a place where there was an astounding prolixity of variation that happened in a short time. Using Darwinian explanations the Burgess Shale is a mystery.
It is easily explained if we use the Law of Survival of the Just-Barely-Fit and assume that the Burgess Shale was laid down during the occasion of the opening up of a new ecological niche. Under those circumstances the reduced pressure on survival allowed the evolution of every variety of organism that could just barely survive. The illustration (Figure EG0511) shows the opening of a new ecological niche. Without competition the newly opened niche tolerates individuals that would not have been able to survive in the old environment, so that the environment fills up with all the variations that can be tolerated.
Classical Darwinian evolutionary theory has no explanation for this kind of phenomenon because the variations that populate the new niche are not the ones that were "fittest" in the old niche.
As before, a phenomenon that was unexplainable by "The Survival of the Fittest" becomes easy to explain once the basic principle of evolution is taken as "The Survival of the Just-Barely-Fit".
It is clear, therefore, that judging purely by its ability to explain phenomena within the disciplinary boundary of evolutionary biology, "Survival of the Fittest" is a poor scientific theory and "Survival of the Just-Barely-Fit" is a good scientific theory. That is important enough to restate:
"Survival of the Just-Barely-Fit" is a better theoryIt is important to note that "Survival of the Just-Barely-Fit" is better in terms of the technical criteria of biological evolution because we want to use it to look at wider implications.
than "Survival of the Fittest" because it provides
better explanations of phenomena that are
specifically related to biological evolution.