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Populations trend towards the reduced expression of phenotypes which are maladaptive. I don't think it is then unreasonable to presuppose (as a starting point f
by Bjartr 9y ago
Populations trend towards the reduced expression of phenotypes which are maladaptive. I don't think it is then unreasonable to presuppose (as a starting point for further investigation) that commonly expressed phenotypes might represent beneficial adaptation, especially when to our intuition the opposite would be true.
- pron 9y agoSaying that something is not maladaptive and saying its adaptive are two very different things.
- emiliobumachar 9y agoI failed to see the difference. Would you please explain? Sounds to me like "not short" vs "tall". Subjective, and people may map different sections of a spectrum into each expression, but again, they may not.
- pron 9y agoThose are not the only two options. Maladaptive traits decrease the frequency of the carrying allele over time (as they hurt chances of survival+procreation), and even assuming that we're not catching a maladaptive trait in the process of being weeded out, its mere existence does not mean it's actually adpative, i.e., helping survival and procreation rates and increasing in frequency. Even assuming that the trait is mostly genetic, it can be neutral, it can be a common maladaptive mutation, and it can be a "net-positive" maladaptive side effect of an adaptive trait -- this is especially likely in a complex organ as the brain, which we know very little about. Assuming that a particular high-function brain behavior is adaptive just because it's there is therefore a stretch, even if it's reasonable to assume it's not severely maladaptive.
- Bjartr 9y agoCorrect of course. I sent a long time deciding if I should extend my part or not to cover that distinction, but I'd felt I'd said enough.