In an evolutionary arms race, natural selection progressively escalates the defenses and counterdefenses of the species. The thick calcareous shells of many marine mollusks and the powerful drilling appendages and musculature of their predators are thought to have coevolved through this process of escalation. A similar example of coevolution has occurred in the endemic mollusks and crabs in Lake Tanganyika. The mollusks in this lake have much thicker shells than other freshwater mollusks, and the endemic crab that feeds on them has much larger chelae (pincerlike claws) than other freshwater crabs. Differences between these mollusks and crabs and the freshwater species throughout the world to which they are related appear to be due to coevolution rather than any unique nutrient or mineral conditions in this lake.

Parasite-host interactions

Parasites and their hosts engage in a similar evolutionary arms race, although in the past parasitologists believed this not to be the case. Instead, parasites were thought to evolve gradually toward reduced antagonism—having a less detrimental effect on their hosts. The degree of virulence was sometimes regarded as an indicator of the age of the relationship: a very virulent relationship, which resulted in the swift demise of the host, was considered new. Research in population biology and evolutionary ecology, however, provided evidence that contradicts this view. Parasite-host interactions are now understood to evolve toward either increased or decreased antagonism, depending on several important ecological factors.

The density of the host population and the transmission rate of the parasite are two of the most important of these ecological factors. The density of the host species determines how often the opportunity arises for a parasite to move from one host to another; the transmission rate of the parasite determines how easily a parasite can move between hosts when the opportunity does arise. Only some parasites are transmitted easily between hosts. If the host occurs at a high density and the transmission rate of the parasite is also high, then natural selection favours increased virulence in the parasite. Being easily transmissible and having many host individuals to infect, the parasite can multiply quickly and escape to new hosts before it kills its current host and dies along with it. Some forms (genotypes) of the parasite will already contain or will develop mutations that increase the speed and proficiency of this process. By producing more organisms that survive, the mutated form of the parasite will outcompete those parasites with the original genotype that are not able to maximize the opportunity to infect the greatest number of hosts. After several generations, many more parasites with enhanced virulence will exist, and this genotype can be said to be favoured by natural selection. If host population density remains high, the parasite genotype that confers the most virulence will become the only form of the parasite in that population.

At the other extreme, if the host population density is low and the transmission rate of the parasite is also low, natural selection will favour less virulent forms of the parasite. The highly virulent forms that quickly kill their host will often die along with their host without having spread to other hosts, leaving only the less virulent parasites to propagate the species.

In many natural environments, host populations fluctuate between high and low density. Consequently, the parasite population will fluctuate as well, sometimes containing more highly virulent forms, sometimes less virulent forms. Depending on the rate at which host density fluctuates, the host population will vary in the degree and mix of virulent forms that it harbours.

The evolution of myxoma virus in rabbits in Australia shows how quickly coevolution of parasites and hosts can proceed to a new outcome, in this case intermediate virulence. European rabbits were introduced into Australia in the 1800s. In the absence of parasites and predators that had kept their numbers in check in their European habitat, they multiplied and disseminated rapidly, causing widespread destruction of the native vegetation. When the myxoma virus was introduced into Australia in 1950 to control rabbit populations, it was highly virulent and caused death in almost all infected rabbits within two weeks. Since then, however, coevolution of the virus and rabbit populations has occurred, resulting in an interaction less immediately lethal to the rabbits. As population levels of the rabbits decreased, mutant strains of the virus that allowed a rabbit host to live longer were favoured, thereby increasing the opportunity for the virus to spread to another rabbit before its current host died. Most infected rabbits still die from the infection, but death is not as relentless and most infected individuals survive for two and a half to four weeks after infection.

The importance of interspecific interactions

The coevolution of the myxoma virus and rabbit species described above illustrates how this process operates to maintain the organization of biological communities, averting the havoc that might ensue without the proper checks and balances that the process ensures. Unfortunately the importance of interspecific interactions may become apparent only after the balance of a community has been disrupted, often by human hands and often with serious reverberations. If the rabbit species had not been introduced into a community in which none of its natural predators were found, its potential for devastation would not be fully appreciated. Interspecies interactions are necessary to maintain population levels of moderate size, and they function in most biological communities in much the same way that the rabbit population was controlled by myxoma virus.

Human disruption

As biological communities are dismantled through human activities, coevolutionary processes and their effects on the organization of communities are disrupted. Changes in population density and the introduction of new species can cause the extinction of other species. In the process, the way natural selection acts on the remaining species within those communities is altered. Increased population densities of some species, for example, are likely to favour the evolution of more virulent genotypes of some parasites (see above The coevolutionary “arms race” versus reduced antagonism). Low population levels of other species can cause the chance loss of genes important to the ongoing coevolution of other interactions. It will seldom be possible to predict how these changes in coevolution will affect the organization of communities, because of the intricate interdependencies among all organisms of the biosphere.