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What arguments are there against it? I had assumed that evolution applies on all levels (and not only to organisms). and what about ants - their evolution would
by facepalm 12y ago
What arguments are there against it? I had assumed that evolution applies on all levels (and not only to organisms). and what about ants - their evolution would always be to benefit the community, I suppose?
- Nevermark 12y agoAnts are often siblings of each other due to the high number of ants produced by a single queen, so "group selection" for ants is really just "offspring selection". Most cases where group/community selection appears to take place have been explained by individual selection. Similarly, most (if not all) cases of symbiotic and cooperative behavior between species have been explained by an evolution of selfish survival behavior of each species. In both cases cooperation is not being directly selected for, but occurs as a special case of individual/selfish selection.
- facepalm 12y agoYou mean groups are selected for because the group benefits the individual? Sure - but that seems to me to just be a point of view, not a refutation of group selection. For example (to clarify), would you say religions are subject to evolution?
- tokenadult 12y agoThank you for asking a follow-up question asking for more information. In general, most biologists are convinced that there is no need for "group selection" processes to explain any biological phenomenon, as individual selection alongside kin selection seem to do the job of explaining phenomena observed so far in evolution.[1] [1] http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/the-demise-of-group-selection/ http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/the-demis... http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/another-case-of-individual-selection-trumping-group-selection/ http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/another-c...