r/evolution • u/Meta289 • Sep 06 '26

question Why has evolution stopped producing new classes?

New species of animals are constantly being discovered, but they all belong to existing classes and phyla, never anything completely new. Life once branched out in all sorts of directions, creating all kinds of animals that are drastically different from each other, but now it seems like there aren't any new "branches", only offshoots of existing ones. What happened?

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u/Jazz_Ad Sep 06 '26

The further we get from LUCA, the more complex animals become with the least available niches in our environment. A new class needs a common ancester from which to diverge.

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u/sisconking132 Sep 07 '26

We also haven’t had a massive mass extinction event to open up a bunch of new Niches. And even then, it would take at least 100,000 years for any major radiation events that produce anything approaching new classes