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> David has drawn our attention to an article in [i]The Guardian [/i]concerning the rediscovery of the Tadpole shrimp, and asks: "[i]How does an organism decide it is perfect for its environment and make no changes for 200 million years?"[/i]-Two weeks ago I pointed out an article which claimed that the &apos;Conan&apos; bug could have been the origin of life on Earth. The bug is so tough that it can survive space travel, having its DNA ripped apart by radiation, and virtually any other environmental hazard you can think of. The article explained that the most likely explanation for its toughness was that the bug "[i]possesses four to 10 copies of its genome, rather than the usual single version[/i]." I asked why this remarkable organism would need to evolve into other organisms when it is so perfectly equipped for survival, and why the four to 10 copy genome would evolve into the far less efficient "usual single version". -We need a specialist in the field to supply us with plausible explanations. Can anyone help?