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Science 21 November 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5342, p. 1403
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5342.1403
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Research News

EVOLUTION:
Life's Winners Keep Their Poise in Tough Times

Richard A. Kerr

What makes a winner in the fight for evolutionary dominance? A pair of paleontologists say they have identified a trait that may play a role: the ability to buffer the body from environmental insults. At the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America last month in Salt Lake City, they reported that, at least in the sea, what they call "buffered physiology" played a central role in determining evolutionary winners and losers during the past half-billion years. Organisms that could buffer their internal organs from changes in ocean chemistry were less likely to be wiped out and more likely to rebound after a mass extinction than were their more sensitive neighbors, these researchers found.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)