Re: Baboons

From: Michael Ragland (ragland37_at_webtv.net)
Date: 06/17/04 

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 05:15:23 +0000 (UTC)

Wirt:

The statement the evolution of human beings can be considered an odd and
unrepeatable phenomenon, making it difficult to draw general principles
of evolution, applicable broadly to life's origin and evolution, from
our own evolutionary history" does not appear to be elaborated on in the
abstract. It just states one exception may be adaptibility. Of course,
adaptibility is a very important part of evolution. I tend to agree that
major features of human evolution arose not from the challenges of the
African savanna, ice-age Europe, and any other single array of habitat
conditions, but rather from the dynamic and unstable qualities of
environments. In other words, the African savanna, iceage Europe, etc.
combined make up those dynamic and unstable qualities of environments
but some of these environments which lasted quite some time may have
played critical roles in our evolution.

I don't like the statement the evolution of human beings can be
considered an odd and unrepeatable phenomenon, making it difficult to
draw general principles of evolution, applicable broadly to life's
origin and evolution, from our own evolutionary history". I don't expect
the short abstract to make a case for this so it would be interesting to
see the argument for it. What is a "weed lineage"? There are possibly
many animals you could say in their evolution represented an odd and
unrepeatable phenomenon. Does that mean it is difficult to draw
"general" principles of evolution, applicable broadly to life's origin
and evolution, from their evolutionary history? Perhaps in some ways but
certainly not impossible in others. From just taking Biology 101 I know
that general principles of evolution, applicable broadly to life's
origin and evolution, from our evolutionary history can be derived.

Speaking of environmental disturbances which are man made such as acid
rain, greenhouse effect, etc. it seems this represents a different kind
of environmental "disturbance" than the ones are ancestors encountered
and which played a part in their evolution.

Michael Ragland

Bill writes:
But remember that the advantage of coyotes over wolves is only after the
appearance of farming technology and the subsequent high human
population density. Before that time, wolves dominated in arboreal
ecosystems while coyotes only dominated in desert and range ecosystems.
So fertility alone is not the answer. I am also not so sure that
superior intelligence alone would give an advantage to early hominids.
Rick Potts of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)
argues that humans are essentially a weed species, a lineage that
prospers(ed) during times of environmental disturbance. Here's a part of
the abstract that he provided for a recent talk that he gave at the 2004
Astrobiology Science Conference a few weeks ago:
======================================
The evolution of human beings can be considered an odd and unrepeatable
phenomenon, making it difficult to draw general principles of evolution,
applicable broadly to life's origin and evolution, from our own
evolutionary history. One possible exception is the evolution of
adaptability. Dramatic expansion in the hominin ability to interact with
environments was expressed as a small population of tropical African
apelike creatures eventually gave rise to a single species, Homo
sapiens. The idea to be examined is that the major features of human
evolution arose not from the challenges of the African savanna, ice-age
Europe, and any other single array of habitat conditions, but rather
from the dynamic and unstable qualities of environments.
======================================
In a few more weeks, we'll have his talk (and slides) up on the internet
so that you may watch it directly.
Wirt Atmar

A professor asked a student, "If you had a choice between the oppressed
and the oppressor which would you choose." The student replied,
"Neither". The Professor shook his head and stated, "You don't have a
choice." The student paused and said, "The oppressed".

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