"Second, if the shape of the lamprey is sufficiently well suited for its ecological niche, evolution will necessarily act to preserve that shape. Lampreys are born all the time with a slightly different shape, but as that shape is less well suited for the niche, those "hopeful monsters" will be weeded out over time."
I sure have a hard time understanding how something could maintain an ecological niche through 360,000,000 years of climate fluctuations, catastrophic events, and extinction events.
When all you have to do is suck off of someone else's resources, you don't have to evolve much.
This also explains why liberals are still around.