London, Aug 24: 'Living space' and not competition is the major driving force of evolution, showed a study by an Indian origin scientist.

This new study on evolution challenged Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution.

During an experiment at University of Bristol, Sarda Sahney with her colleagues said that Charles Darwin may have been wrong when he imagined a world in which organisms battled for supremacy and only the fittest survived.

The researchers used fossils to study evolutionary patterns over 400 million years of history.

The team said that the amount of biodiversity closely matched the availability of "living space" through time.

What is Living space?

It is more formally known as the "ecological niche concept" by biologists, refers to the particular requirements of an organism to thrive. It includes factors like the availability of food and a favourable habitat.

For instance, birds that took to flight for the first time opened up a vast range of new possibilities not available to other animals.

However, an evolutionary biologist disapproving the theory said, "found the patterns interesting, but the interpretation problematic."

ANI