'Maintenance of variation is a classic paradox in evolution because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations ' Fitzpatrick explained today. 'If one form has an advantage such as being harder to spot it should replace all others. Likewise random drift genetic change that occurs by chance alone will eventually result in loss of all but one form when there are no fitness differences. There must therefore be some advantage that allows unusual traits to persist.'It's good to be weird.
The researchers placed a selection of food-bearing model salamanders into a field for six days with striped models outnumbering the unstriped by nine to one or vice versa. On test days the numbers were evened out. In each case Blue Jays were more likely to attack the models that had been most prevalent over the previous six-day period.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Here's to the Strange
Freaks Survive Because They Are Strange | LiveScience
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3 comments:
I really don't think the writer of that little article you quoted really understood the profound implications of the results they were referring too. Yes, they mentioned the paradox it overcomes, but they seemed to just be regurgitating the scientific paper, and not really getting how big this is.
I've been thinking about this for days, and it just blows my mind.
Let's say a particular animal gets a random mutation that give hims really big ears. This helps him hear better, so he and his offspring avoid predators and live a little longer.
In the past, one would assume that it takes a long time for this gene to spread throughout the species. Yes, they're more likely to survive, but they still represent a tiny fraction of the breeding population, and how much of a difference can big ears really make?
Now we understand it's a double whammy. His big ears have a survival bonus because of the improved hearing. But there's a second survival bonus because predators say "I ain't eating that weirdo with the big ears." It stacks, at least until the majority have big ears.
It feels like it's the magic bullet, ya know? The tools of evolution are random mutation and natural selection. I realize this falls into the later, but it also kinda feels like it's got the potential to be nearly as important on its own. Like the tools of evolution are now random mutation, natural selection, and the freak factor.
Really hoping some follow up studies surface soon. So cool.
Now we understand it's a double whammy.His big ears have a survival bonus because of the improved hearing. But there's a second survival bonus because predators say "I ain't eating that weirdo with the big ears."
Actually, maybe it's a triple whammy. You know what they say about guys with big ears.
You know what they say about guys with big ears.Yes. They get bigger muffs.
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