Are you a lazy person? A new study claims that being lazy might be a great survival strategy, according to a report by the Daily Mail.
A new study has found laziness could ensure the survival of individuals and even entire groups of species.
Scientists came to this conclusion after studying the energy needs of 299 species that are extinct and living bivalves and gastropods, across a period of almost five million years.
The study was primarily based on lowly molluscs that reside in the Atlantic. However, the team believes their theory could apply to bigger animals too.
Upon investigation, they found that the species that have managed to survive all these years are mostly 'low maintenance' kinds that do not requires a lot of energy.
"Maybe in the long term the best evolutionary strategy for animals is to be lassitudinous and sluggish," US ecologist Professor Bruce Lieberman, who co-led the University of Kansas team, is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
"The lower the metabolic rate, the more likely the species you belong to will survive. Instead of 'survival of the fittest', maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is 'survival of the laziest' or at least 'survival of the sluggish'," he went on to explain.
The reason the findings provide valuable insight is because it could help predict the fate of species affected by climate change.
The study was originally published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
