Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.

"JAE" <jae@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1119366655.202781.51650@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> > Like the rest of PA, you have FORGOTTEN
> > that selection is working all the time.
>
> Selection is not operating on all variation at all times.

Perhaps not on ALL variations -- only on
about 99.99% of them. To put it crudely,
legs cannot get too short, or the individual
will not be able to keep up; nor can legs be
too long, or he or she will suffer from high
blood pressure, varicose veins, frostbite,
or whatever.

Leg-length is controlled by genes. In every
generation selection will operate to remove
those at the extremes of the scale.

But there MAY be the rare variation that is
'selection neutral' -- perhaps blood types
(or perhaps not).

> The polite
> way to put it is that you are wrong. If variation produces an effect
> that creates a difference in the survival and reproductive success,
> selection operates. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

List the features of any animal -- there will be
tens or hundreds of thousands. Variation in
almost every one of them will affect survival
and reproductive success. To make sure that
such a list is objective, pick a pre-existing one,
such as any from natural history description of
the species. The authors of such lists pick out
the important and distinguishing characteristics
of those species. Any significant variation in
such a feature in an individual will wreck that
animal's prospects.

Of course, what you do is to seek for a feature
of complete insignificance. That has become
the goal in life of all in PA. The reasons for it
are not in the least strange. You can no longer
afford to focus on issues of significance. The
lack of answers has become too embarrassing.
So you've given up.


Paul.




.

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