Evolution?
There's a little superficially clamlike animal called a linguloid brachiopod that has been around for about 540,000,000 years. Since the early Cambrian. As far as paleontologists can tell, it hasn't changed much if at all in all those years. Presumably it hasn't needed to.
Since the appearance of the first Lingula, many other critters have evolved. Most of them are long since gone.
Maybe there is something to be said for doing things well up front rather than evolving.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
