From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Sep 24 2002 - 11:02:43 MDT
spike66 wrote:
> ...
> The next interesting thing is that perhaps the
> big-heads developed intelligence far beyond the
> optimum for survival of the genome. If humans were
> just a little dumber, perhaps they never would have
> developed nukes. (I am going meta here, by referring
> to humans as "they".) Humans may then face the same
> unfortunate fate as the Irish elk, which evidently
> liked their mates with huge antlers; so large they
> could not support the weight of the male as they
> mounted during copulation, thus becoming extinct.
> This would be a sad thing indeed, were I not in meta
> mode currently.
>
> http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/irishelk.html
>
> spike
>
I truly doubt that evolutionary "just so story". I've heard it
presented as fact, but as far as I can tell nobody has any evidence to
back this up. And I don't think that it holds up theoretically.
Evolution doesn't work like that. Female choice can cause the antlers
to increase tremendously, but not so much that reproduction becomes
impossible. Population variability would prevent that. I suspect
either climate variation, or new predators (including diseases among the
predators).
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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