Evolution: Not Only the Fittest Survive (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110327191044.htm)
QuoteScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2011) â€" Darwin's notion that only the fittest survive has been called into question by new research published in the journal Nature. A collaboration between the Universities of Exeter and Bath in the UK, with a group from San Diego State University in the US, challenges our current understanding of evolution by showing that biodiversity may evolve where previously thought impossible...
Interesting research sheds some light on diversification of organisms and how these can co-exist in a common environment.
When I read "On the Origin of Species", I never got the impression that only the fittest survive and when the term was used, it very much appeared to be a metaphor or analogy than a scientific term. So I cringe when people say "survival of the fittest" seriously just as much as I cringe when people seriously say that Einstein believed in a personal god. Both are misrepresenting the actual ideas behind the small quotations. Saying Darwin was wrong because "survival of the fittest" is not accurate is like saying Einstein is wrong because there aren't people walking to the front of buses going the speed of light.
Any way, after all that unnecessary crap; the theory of evolution never said only the fittest survive so this is not much of a groundbreaking discovery because it follows right along with the theory of evolution, however it does explain how one environment can have many or no "top dog" species. Hopefully it will help people stop saying "survival of the fittest".
Maybe I'm just cranky.