BiologyGenetics and Evolution |
What is the Red Queen hypothesis? |
This hypothesis, also called the law of constant extinction, is named after the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s (1832–1898) Through the Looking Glass, who said, “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.” The idea is that an evolutionary advance by one species represents a deterioration of the environment for all remaining species. This places pressure on those species to advance just to keep up.