June 26, 2012
Evolution and Our Inner Conflict
E.O. Wilson at NYTimes' The Stone:
Within biology itself, the key to the mystery is the force that lifted pre-human social behavior to the human level. The leading candidate in my judgment is multilevel selection by which hereditary social behavior improves the competitive ability not of just individuals within groups but among groups as a whole. Its consequences can be plainly seen in the caste systems of ants, termites and other social insects. Between-group selection as a force operating in addition to between-individual selection simultaneously is not a new idea in biology. Charles Darwin correctly deduced its role, first in the insects and then in human beings — respectively in “On the Origin of Species” and “The Descent of Man.”
More here.
Posted by Henry Molofsky at 08:55 AM | Permalink
Comments
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/killdeer/lifehistory
http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/killdeer.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69j2qbXe9r4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUO9vVkc0FY
About a month ago we observed a bird with a nest right on the back yard ground behind our house on a golf course. The nest had four beautiful dark brown speckled eggs. The bird had long legs and distinctive dark and light rings around her neck. We identified it as a Killdeer, described in the above links. Our bird had much lighter feathers than those in the above pictures.
I waited as long as possible to mow the lawn but being on a golf course where the rules are strictly enforced, I had to finally mow before the eggs hatched. Of course the mother bird didn’t know I would carefully avoid hurting her nest. As I mowed closer and closer to the nest she courageously sat on those eggs, scowling at me, until I got about two rows from it, at which time she stood up and made all sorts of gestures and noises and even sought to run at me threatening to peck me. She also spread her wings and acted as if she had a broken wing as described in the above links, evidently to divert me from the nest.
We were unable to observe the actual birth of the new chicks, but upon returning the other day, the nest was empty and all four eggs evidently hatched successfully. But while we were there the proud mother and two of her new chicks were observed in the yard having a good time. They survived golf balls, idiots looking for golf balls off course, predators and my lawn mower. Even the male was on hand to attempt to peck or intimidate us if we sought to bother the nest. The chicks looked just like the mother and father with dark and light rings on their necks. Note that these birds, like most others, only mate with the same kind. You never observe a killdeer mating with a robin or a cardinal or a crow or a hawk, etc.
This is the delightful miracle of life which we don’t understand today and likely never will.
Also observe that this mother killdeer handled all problems herself personally. She had no killdeer nurses or doctors or social workers to aid her. Nor did she have to pay any fraudulent hospital bills either. She did everything from laying the eggs, incubating them, moving them, protecting them, defending them and teaching the new young to fly and hunt for food. As Mark Twain observed over a century ago, “Man evolved down from the higher animals” and this remarkable and beautiful episode again proves the point. How many humans do you know who could accomplish all these feats themselves with no help from others? And always remember, birds operate in three dimensions, not just two like humans do.
There is little more profound and enlightening and pleasurable in nature than watching a mother bird bring new young offspring into this world.
Winfield J. Abbe, Ph.D., Physics
Posted by: WJAbbe | Jun 27, 2012 6:55:45 AM
As a corollary to the above comments, observe that the mother killdeer also did not smoke, drink alcohol or take dangerous drugs which could impair the intelligence and health of her new chicks as many humans deliberately, ignorantly and negligently do with their young, resulting in impaired intelligence and untold costs to society as well as human suffering of the new offspring.
Posted by: WJAbbe | Jun 27, 2012 7:31:21 AM
Jerry Coyne and others have (in the opinion of this lay person) conclusively refuted the concept of group selection. Thus, I will abstain from reading any of Wilson's opinion pieces until he gives up this useless idea.
Posted by: JonJ | Jun 27, 2012 12:58:20 PM
Post a comment