Evolution?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250213143940.htm
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2413930121
The PNAS article is open access.  My take is that this isn't how life evolves.  The computer program doesn't simulate living biochemistry very well, and is likely over simplified.  It also apparently allows mutations to be concentrated on parts of the program that would allow the adaptations that they are selecting for.
Life isn't a computer program.  There are no series of logic tasks that need to be completed in order for the program to replicate.
As evolution has worked since the last common ancestor existed, it works on a functioning lifeform that can survive in the existing environment. This lifeform is fully functional in terms of obtaining a positive energy flow from the surrounding environment and has no issues with reproduction when the inputs are met.  There is also many overlapping redundancies in doing what needs to be accomplished in order to replicate.  New functions can be added or existing functions can be altered as long as the changes do not prevent the reproduction of the lifeform.
Replication is imperfect so even in clonal populations what you end up with is a population of lifeforms that still work, but have genetic variation that allows the lifeform to survive with a slightly altered genetic make up.  Every change has to work with what already exists or it doesn't get passed down to the next generation.  Diploid eukaryotes relaxed this limitation a bit, and allowed greater exploration of what genetic changes could exist within a functioning organism.
Generalists usually exist in unstable environments that are subject to seasonal fluctuations and long term drought or the ice ages.  Successful generalist species accumulate genetic variation that allows them to exploit the changes.  They already have the genetic variation needed to adapt quickly to new environments.
One thing that hasn't been pointed out using the ancient DNA of ice age megafauna is that when the megafauna were sucessful they retained genetic variation that was not adapted to glacial conditions.  They were not completely adapted to the long cold conditions.  The last of the megafauna had less of this genetic variation, and were likely better adapted to the long cold conditions, and they all failed to adapt to the most recent warm period.  They were the survivors of around a million years of around 100,000 years of cold, but they had to survive 20,000 years of temperate climate conditions inbetween the cold periods.  They initially evolved when the cycles were less than 40,000 years, and evolved in the to mega fauna, but it looks like a longer period to adapt to the cold messed up their population's chances of survival, and they all went extinct.  Large animals need more food and territory that did not exist during the warm periods where they were restricted to alpine valleys separated as small populations.
Ron Okimoto