Originally posted by Soothfast
I agree with Stephen Jay Gould's take on the matter: The best measure of "success" of a species is prevalence in space and endurance over time. That makes bacteria the winner hands down. So Wolfgang and Gould are on the same page.
Just read the first 45 pages of the book "Full House" to see why this makes sense.
It it were just prevalence over space and time, then the bacteria and roaches would win.
But clearly compared to all the life forms, Humans are the dominant species.
Humans can kill the roaches and bacteria. As we know, bacteria also kills a number of humans, but they don't hold us under subjection for long.
So I would suggest that a species "wins" when
1)its population is large(r) in quantity than the others species
2) its population is wide-spread / global (space) and over a longer period.
3) its population is able to "dominate" over other species as humans do.. they keep domesticated animals in farms, etc and wild animals in zoos, forest reserves.