That pretty much says that after 10 million years of breeding like that while humans breed the way we do, sea lions should by all rights be running this planet. What about it? Why aren't they??You aren't serious are you?
They have in fact evolved to rule their specific niche . They are experts at catching fish, swimming, insulating themselves from the cold and are perfectly happy where they are. They aren't adapted to live in other climate/locales etc. Those spots were already taken. This should be obvious.
The word NICHE is a sort of a magic formula with you guys, isn't it? I mean, you use it to try to cover 40% or thereabouts of all the #### you don't have rational explainations for.
So you get some creature which is perfectly adapted for its own "niche(TM)" and, according to the theory one surmises, the only way the creature would ever evolve after that would be for the environment to change, and new or different features to become advantageous. Nonetheless, sexual selection would not allow it. The females would go right on selecting against any male which tried to adapt outside the species boundaries. Or is some females velociraptor supposed to have said to herself:
"Say, you know, that Alvin over there sure looks weird with those wings and that beak, but that's sure gonna be useful for flying some day...
No one is "perfectly" adapted. Life is a constant struggle for survival. The fish are also getting faster and better at evading the seals, a drop in temperature ushers in an ice age.
The females would go right on selecting against any male which tried to adapt outside the species boundaries. Or is some females velociraptor supposed to have said to herself:
"Say, you know, that Alvin over there sure looks weird with those wings and that beak, but that's sure gonna be useful for flying some day...
That was funny, thanks for the laugh medved. Seriously, evolution doesnt argue that beaks and wings just spontaneously appear out of nowhere in one generation. We are talking about "simple" adaptations and improvements thereupon - longer claws, faster arms, thicker skin etc.
As for flight... this page offers a simple hypothesis for how flight may have evolved in birds.