A living fossil is a living species (or clade) that appears to be similar to another species otherwise known only from fossils, typically with no close living relatives.
A living fossil is considered as a successful organism, which has made its way through many major extinction events. Also, the morphology of living fossils resemble some species of organisms which we know only through their fossil remains.
What is the reason for a particular type of species to become a living fossil; is the engineering of this particular species extraordinary, in that it can survive any selection process encountered thus far?
Is there not enough selection pressure exerted on this species in order to force it to change morphologically?
Have these organisms modified themselves, so that currently their morphology seems to be similar to a fossil organism?
Answer
One part of your question betrays a serious error:
- Is there not enough selection pressure exerted on this species in order to force it to change morphologically?
Actually the reverse is true; constancy of form can only be maintained in the presence of continuous selective pressure. It's just that this is stabilising selection that acts to maintain the existing form rather than push the organism to new morphologies. In fact, most selection acts in this manner. This shouldn't surprise you: organisms are typically well adapted to their environments so changes are more likely to reduce fitness than increase fitness.
It's also worth noting that although living fossils show little morphological change they can continue to show change at the molecular level at rates as high as, or higher than, other organisms - e.g. (May et al 2007; Cao et al 2013).
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