What is Evolutionary suicide?
'''Evolutionary suicide''' is not a standard term in [[evolutionary biology]]. It is not used in any standard [[textbook]] on [[evolution]].<ref>It is not in Barton N.H. ''et al'' 2007. ''Evolution''. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN 978-0-879-69684-9; nor in Futuyma D.J. 1998. ''Evolutionary biology''. 3rd ed, Sinauer. ISBN 0-87893-189-9; nor in Freeman, Scott & Herron, Jon 2007. ''Evolutionary analysis''. Cummings ISBN 0-13-227584-8; nor in Ridley, Mark 2003. ''Evolution''. 3rd ed, Wiley ISBN 978-1-4051-0345-9</ref> It is the incorrect idea that the [[adaptation]] of an individual animal works in such a way that an entire [[species]] dies out. The idea is that [[evolution]] makes [[plant]]s and [[animal]]s pass on their [[gene]]s to the next generation more efficiently, but it does not guarantee the survival of the population or the species.<ref>D.J. Rankin et al.: ''Species-level selection reduces selfishness through competitive exclusion.'' In: ''Journal of Evolutionary Biology'' 20, 2007, pp&nbsp;1459–1468. PMID 17584239</ref> Obviously, that is true, and [[extinction]] occurs often. Evolution cannot foresee the future. This is, however, nothing at all to do with suicide. A candidate for a future evolutionary suicide might be [[cod]]. Cod is caught as fish by humans. The fish do not weigh as much as they used to, mostly because they do not survive long enough. They do, however, mature earlier.<ref>E.M. Olsen et al.: ''Maturation trends indicative of rapid evolution preceded the collapse of northern cod.'' In: ''[[Nature (journal)]].'' 428, 2004, pp.&nbsp;932–935. PMID 15118724</ref><ref>D.O. Conover & S.B. Munch: ''Sustaining fisheries yields over evolutionary time scales.'' In: ''Science.'' 297, 2002, pp.&nbsp;94–96. PMID 12098697</ref> Although this means the number of eggs per female fish is reduced, its effect depends rather on the extent of [[overfishing]].<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Courchamp| first1 = Franck| last2 = Berec| first2 = Ludek| last3 = Gascoigne| first3 = Joanna| title =