What are your plans for old age?

[zorkan]

what is your definition of "evolution by natural selection," zorkan?

When it isn't artificial.

How about punctuated equilibrium to explain why mammals like us exist.

Leeches exist because of blood circulation in mammals.

Maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladogenesis

[The Magic Pudding..]

An Internet says:
"Predatory leeches may feed on other invertebrates such as insect larvae, earthworms, snails, and other leeches, while parasitic leeches feed on the blood of fishes, birds, amphibians, and mammals."

[zorkan]

That was only my experience of them.
I have encountered leeches in walks in the jungle.
Not as yet in the UK, but I see there are 37 varieties.

https://www.wlgf.org/leeches.html

"Leeches are infamous for sucking blood from people and other mammals,"

[billy rubin]

what is your definition of "evolution by natural selection," zorkan?

When it isn't artificial.

yes. it has nothing to do with abiogenesis, unless you make some dawkins-style conceptual leaps. natural selection works only on pre-existing life.

[zorkan]

yes. it has nothing to do with abiogenesis, unless you make some dawkins-style conceptual leaps. natural selection works only on pre-existing life.

As in like the headline "survivors found drowned"?

Dawkins is a bit of a dickhead who likes to use his intellectual weight on the little people.
While natural selection creates rapid change on the smaller scale, catastrophic events will also lead to long term change.
Transitional species do exist but the fossil record is like a jigsaw puzzle with the majority of pieces missing.