Comments on Evolution 101: What is Information Theory?

I also need to second Chris Erickson's objection t...

2007-08-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

I also need to second Chris Erickson's objection to disregarding that question out of hand. It doesn't matter how complex the processes which govern that behavior are, deers get hit by cars all the time because they stop there, any set of genes which avoids that conveys an advantage. Domestic breeding isn't exactly accelerated evolution, it's just a complete flip of the selection pressure so rather than being roughly as good as it can get for nature and slowly pushing that envelope it can get as good as it can get for man, which is roughly 180 degrees different and so all the carefully adjusted gene frequencies are flipped and the gene pool levels switch quickly (which if you ascribe to gene frequency changes over time does meet the definition) -- but the point is that when something comes up the animals can adapt within a few generations so long as the needed genes are already in the gene pool.

Consider for a moment how you would selectively breed deer to avoid cars? -- How does that differ from what happens all the time now.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/newsmakers/deer/

1.5 million deer-car collisions a year. It certainly isn't obvious, but it does not warrant being disregarded out of hand.

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I also wondered about the deer in the headlights s...

2006-08-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

I also wondered about the deer in the headlights syndrome. ^_^

I think Dr. Zach was too quick in discounting Fran...

2006-08-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

I think Dr. Zach was too quick in discounting Frank's question concerning selective pressure of road crossing on deer behavior. He implies (perhaps inadvertantly) that human action affects evolution of a species primarily through selective breeding of domestic animals. Of course, this is an important example, but far from the only example, of humans altering the evolution of organisms.

To give a well know example, consider the evolution response of bateria and virus to drug therapies. Another example is the change in camophlagous of the peppered moth in response to human caused pollution. (The typica peppered moth is white with black specles and predominates in perstine forests but charcole colored carbonaria peppered moth in forests near coal burning factories.)

Other,less well known examples include the fact that wild birds in the old world (which are subject to human predation) don't taste good compared to new world species (e.g., we use to eat passenger pigeons but don't eat starlings). The chicken being the exception that proves the rule -- its very deliciousness has led to it being propograted by humans, hence, its spread beyond its original range.

One can also talk about the fact that large mammals are very skiddish of humans because large mammals that are not skiddish were killed off by human hunter-gathers. (By the way, humans are skiddish of lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my) for the same reason.)

There are many other examples.

This is not to say that Dr. Zach's analysis of the specific example of deer crossing the road is wrong. Only to say that it is not proposperous to hypothesize that deer behavior (over hundreds of years) might be changed by evolutionary pressure from car accidents.