Extinction (was Jurassic Intelligence)

[Phillip Bigelow <n8010095@henson.cc.wwu.edu>]

Regarding the intelligence issue and how it relates to evolution and
extinction: 
 All that Nature cares is that it's children (organisms) play by the rules. 
(my opinion of what these rules are is given below.  
Others may take exception.  Your milage may vary.  Break a bunch of these
rules, and it's so-long-Charlie-osaurus.
The list could also be called the "How to avoid going extinct scorecard"):

                Rules of success for a long taxonomic life**** 
   1) Maintain high genetic diversity within your species.
   2) Have as many different species within your clade diversify to fill as
      many ecological niches as possible. (alternatively, have a single
      species fill as many ecological niches as possible). 
   3) Maintain a high number of different species within your clade. 
   4) If you must evolve, evolve into more generalized forms.  (or if you
      are already generalized, stay that way). Do *not* evolve
      into more specialized forms. 

It's fun to apply the above rules to dinosaurs, mammals, and specific
mammals such as man!  (you all can do the comparison, yourselves  :-) 
I cranked each one through the list of rules and found some interesting things.
(personally, from a species-survival point of view, I don't think human's high
degree of cognitive intelligence is going to help us much in the long-run). 

**** p.s.   
          The original concepts in the list aren't found in one single 
          source, but they have been written about in 
          John Horner's _Digging Dinosaurs_, David Raup's,
          _Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck?_, a book by Peter Ward (title
          escapes me at the momment), Steven Jay Gould's books _Hens Teeth
          and Horses Toes_, _The Panda's Thumb_, _The Mismeasure of Man_,
          _Wonderful Life_.  I also found stuff in Robert
          Carroll's textbook _Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution_.