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In evolution, an species mutates and evolves over large genetic time spans. But every big change (say, swimming to walking, or walking to flying) is made up of countless micro-changes over the course of many many years and many many generations.

My question, does each "micro-change" have to be an improvement over the prior iteration? Or can evolution initiate micro-changes, knowing the current generation won't see the final result for an arbitrary number of years?

Eddie
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    Related: http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/13680/why-specifically-does-each-generation-on-average-improve-upon-the-design-of?rq=1 – arboviral Jul 12 '16 at 15:40
  • @arboviral Actually, that answer is enough to answer my question. I'm content calling this a duplicate question and closing it. Thanks for the link! – Eddie Jul 12 '16 at 15:55
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    Delighted to help! I'd also suggest taking a look through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_drift, and bearing in mind that 'improvement' depends on the environmental context, which changes constantly. – arboviral Jul 12 '16 at 16:03

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