After a species becomes extinct, will evolution create another species to do its function in the ecosystem?

Answer 1

If a niche is created or vacated, and the building blocks are available to fill that ecological hole, then yes the ecological balance may be retained! That's one way how natural selection works - the ability of existing or introduced animals to locate and utilize available habitat for food, shelter, etc. How a new organism utilizes the vacated niche however, may not be100% the same as the original extinct animal, and in fact it could take several different organims to carry on the same function once held by one!

OK, it's a little more complicated then that, considering the web of life, but that is how it works in simplified terms.

Answer 2

There are a couple of problems with the question as you've asked it.
First: evolution does not "create" anything "for" a purpose. It's not directed toward any goal, so it could not "fill the hole" in the ecosystem with another species.
Second: there are no "holes" to fill. The ecological niche is not an abstract entity, a place or function that's there to be filled. The niche is an emergent of the interaction of each species with its environment, including non-living factors and other living species. Therefore, if a species goes extinct, its ecological niche disappears. And of course, as the extinct species was part of the niche of other species, the effects of its disappearance may be unexpected.
Other species may in time evolve and change their own niche so that it is similar to the niche of the extinct species, but that's not necessarily so. After the Tertiary megafauna (which included both giant birds and mammals) was extinct, no new megamammals arose.
The interactions between the history (phylogeny) of a lineage and its environment are complex, and they produce unique results; this includes the adaptive types and niches.

Answer 3

Well after a species becomes extinct, an invasive species could come and take another species place. But invasive species tend to be a reason for many species to go extinct. If evolution creates another species to participate in a certain function of the ecosystem, you have to realize that this could take thousands, or possibly millions, of years to do.

Answer 4

The process is far too unpredictable to give a positive answer one way or the other, but it is entirely possible. For example:

If a species A, which lives on species B, goes extinct, then species B will overpopulate due to the reduced consumption of its numbers. Now let's say that species C occasionally consumes species B, but now since the latter is in so much abundance, their diet evolves to consume species B in higher numbers. A change in diet can be the catalyst for evolutionary change, so it's possible that species C can branch out to form species D. Thereby replacing species A.

The problem now is, we're killing things off too quickly, so evolution doesn't have time to make these kinds of changes before we do something else that disrupts the whole process. Therefore, the above scenario probably is and will be rare for quite some time.

And that's a sad thing.

Answer 5

A species goes extinct because it can't survive in the ecosystem it lives in. That may be due to a variety of things.

Evolution does not create species like a diety creates a species out of thin air. Evolution is a process by which species succeed or fail in a given environment.

Answer 6

Yes, a new species will evolve to occupy its place in the ecosystem. If one of the niches is left unexplored in the ecosystem then some species or the other will evolve to utilize the niche. All species have the inherent tendency to go in for adaptability that will lead to lesser competition.

If you take the example of the Finches in Galapagos, they have occupied all the niches from the nut cracker to the predator. That is analogous to different niches occupied by the sparrow to the Hawk. The finches were the probably the first birds to explore the island of Galapagos and diversified according to the niches available there.

Answer 7

If there are no other species available to fill the niche and the
niche is viable & available long enough then some life form
will probably evolve and take advantage of it...
Usually when one species becomes extinct , another species
immediately takes over the niche...
Life does not evolve to perform a function "for" the ecosystem...
Life evolves to enhance & improve its own chances of survival.

Answer 8

Species compete for space and resources. If one species dies out, that leaves room for another or multiple other species to take the place of the one that is gone. It doesn’t have to happen, but given the lack of resources on earth, some other life form usually finds a way to take those resources. What that species actually does and how it fulfils your definition of fulfilling a function is probably more open to anyone’s guess. The organism doesn’t need to serve the same role; it merely needs to be able to survive on the available resources.

Answer 9

Thats not how evolution works. According to the theory, the strong will survive. Any species dependent on the extinct species will either have to adapt to the loss or also die out. If any other species die out, there is most likely the possibility that it will cause other species to flurish.

Answer 10

Nope. We just mess up the ecosystem fuller when a species becomes extinct.