Can Evolution Go Backwards?

I was astonished by this article by Michael Dhar at LiveScience:

Evolution has produced stunningly complex features, from neuron-studded octopus arms to the mammalian ear. Can evolution ever go “backward,” though, reverting complex creatures to previous, simpler forms?

In so-called regressive evolution, organisms can lose complex features and thus appear to have evolved “back” into simpler forms. But evolution doesn’t really go backward in the sense of retracing evolutionary steps, experts say.

“The chances that the same tape [of evolutionary changes] would be … reversed in the same way is highly improbable,” William R. Jeffery(opens in new tab), a biologist at the University of Maryland, told Live Science.

for the simple reason that the question is meaningless. The only “direction” that evolution has is towards greater fitness with an organism’s environment as the quote that concludes the piece says:

“Evolution is always progressive in that it’s selecting for features that improve the fitness of the individuals in which that variation is being expressed,” Okamura said.

There are examples of “regressive evolution” other than those in the article. Whales, dolphins, and seals, for example. Anteaters and pangolins.

One thing we might consider is that our notion of intelligence and opposable digits as complexity is basically just an assumption. There is little evidence that the human species is evolving towards big-headed brains with tiny vestigial bodies. Our species might as well lose intelligence as gain it, depending on the environment.