: Then how come we're descended from it? While it's true
: that evolution doesn't inexorably lead to
: "progress," it's hard to imagine a set of
: selective pressures that would cause a Myrkridia to
: evolve into a soft, slow, weak mammal. What survival
: trick do we have that they don't?
Well, what advantage do we have over large apes? They're stronger, they have bigger, sharper teeth, and their nails are certainly better than ours. So why should Humans have evolved? What advantage could we have had over our lesser brethren?
We refused to grow up.
Baby chimps learn much like baby humans, but their skulls seal much faster than our infants do, so their brains have to stop growing and they can't develop the "gray matter" we have. But, in a classic example of neogeny, some baby chimps didn't "grow up", and kept their infantile features of fast learning and growing brains (as well as flatter faces), and eventually evolved into humans.
If I supported the /therapsidia myrkridia/ theory, I would say the same thing happened to the Krids, with the younger races growing bigger brains, and as their use for size, fangs, and claws decreased, those became less of evolutionary advantages and were discarded from later forms.
