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Grade 12th passZoology

An ideal parasite is able to thrive in the host without harming it then why did not natural selection lead to the evolution of such totally harmless parasites.

Profile image of Arundhati roy
9 Years agoGrade 12th pass
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3 Answers

Profile image of Bijay Kumar sahoo
ApprovedApproved Tutor Answer9 Years ago
No species is completely wipped out from nature. Evolution is a stochastic process based on chance events in nature.
Profile image of Nishtha
ApprovedApproved Tutor Answer9 Years ago
By definition parasites need their hosts for various activities like for food,for shelter , for completing their life cycle etc. Natural selection did not lead to such evolution because if the parasite become harmless then they show commensalism not parasitism. Parasites does not survive after being harmless. By the help of natural selection they evolve themselves to find other ways to infect host cells . They cannot be totally harmless by evolution or by natural selection.
Profile image of User
7 Years ago
Parasites could evolve themselves to find a new way to infect host cells but cannot evoleve to be harmless because if they loose their mechanism of spreading they could not survive