There is at least one rather specialised area in which theory offers predictions—evolution of communities. It’s like, ‘when true grasses appeared, they made, through having some novel features, created grasslands. They circumvented successions that would lead to preexistent plant habitats; in the beginning, they were weeds compared to the rest of vegetation. Nowadays, we have a group of species that spread widely, are considered weeds and share ecological similarity, not [relatively recent] common ancestor. We predict that in future, these weeds will form habitats through disruption of current eco networks.’ Admittedly, this is hard to observe.
There is at least one rather specialised area in which theory offers predictions—evolution of communities. It’s like, ‘when true grasses appeared, they made, through having some novel features, created grasslands. They circumvented successions that would lead to preexistent plant habitats; in the beginning, they were weeds compared to the rest of vegetation. Nowadays, we have a group of species that spread widely, are considered weeds and share ecological similarity, not [relatively recent] common ancestor. We predict that in future, these weeds will form habitats through disruption of current eco networks.’ Admittedly, this is hard to observe.