Their are finches on one isolated island who change their beak structure from generation to generation based on the different types of seeds that are available which is based on how much water the islands get in those times.

The Rays are degenerate humans. In theory, beneficial mutations result, and this was the theory the experiment ran on, but in this experiment and every other one to date, no beneficial, step forward mutations have been discovered.

There have been mutations that benefited the organism like ones that made the bacteria more sluggish. Ordinarily this is not an advantage, but if said bacteria is swimming in a sea of poison (antibiotics) then more sluggish behavior is actually a survival advantage.

The Rays are advantaged because they don’t have to worry about certain complexities that bother normal humans–like morality, or fear, or compassion. They go straight for the jugular every time. They also tend to be very strongly driven.

But, the Rays are actually a degenerate form of human like the Morlocks. Granted they dress in nice suits, but they would never have been able to build the civilization they are ruling because they are too predatory.

Oh, and evolutionary theory acknowledges that the vast majority of mutations from cosmic radiation are fatal defects; it assumes that with millions of affected specimens, one in a million will have a beneficial mutation that can be passed to descendants. You’re better off making your “Rays” children with whom there was genetic tinkering, attempting to splice new traits into the existing zygote, rather than going for random mutation.

–M. J. Young