"group selection doesn't exist at all in nature."
Taylor, D.R.; C. Zeyl and E. Cooke. 2002. Conflicting levels of selection in the accumulation of mitochondrial defects in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PNAS. 99:3690-3694 If in one direction, why not another? While Wynne-Edwards was arguably wrong (even if similar arguments had been made by many in the modern synthesis), you are ignoring the development of multi-level selection and the fact that it is generally robust to the criticisms you (and Williams) have levied. Goodnight and Stevens (1997) argue that his criticism apply only to a subset of group selection arguments as well. All that is required for evolution to occur is for there to be heritable variation between reproducing units. Nothing about whether evolutionary processes occur above or below the level of an individual organism is involved in these definitions. Can multilevel selection occur? Most certainly. How common it is remains a different issue, which like the prevalence (or not) of sympatric speciation, may in part be due to the assumptions made in our statistical tests and how we frame questions. Ned Dochtermann ***************************************************** Ned Dochtermann [EMAIL PROTECTED] 775-784-6781 Graduate Group in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology Fleischman Agriculture Building, Room 145 University of Nevada, Reno ***************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of isab972 Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 12:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: EVOLUTION Behavior Re: current natural selection pressures Well, good to see that some evolutionary biologists have started to clarify what natural selection does or does not! > All the clever joking, punning, and tongue-in-cheekin' aside, > whilst you are quite correct to emphasize that "there is an > important [flaw]" flowing through any logic that GENETIC > natural selection acts DIRECTLY on groups, but what about > complex evolution of behaviors within and between cultures? Thanks for your nice reply, Wayne, and for correcting my English... As a foreigner I sometimes make spelling mistakes. Anyway, regarding group selection and why doesn't work in nature, you might wish to read: Williams (1966): Adaptation and natural selection, let's say THE reference book that explains in details why group selection cannot work. New edition in 1996 Ridley, M.: Evolution (the most recent edition is 2004). A very good text book for anyone wishing to start studying evolution (pages 302-304 on why group selection doesn't work). Ridley, M. Ed (2004) Evolution. Same title and author, but this is an edited book with the most influential papers of the most famous evolutionary biologists. Again, group selection is destroyed with examples and theory For those who believe that group selection and kin selection are the same, this is not a semantic matter: group selection and kin selection are two very distinct things and have very different meanings. Still, kin selection is very rare in nature and doesn't shine much; group selection doesn't exist at all in nature. Finally, for those interested in evolution of human cultures, look at the papers by Ruth Mace! Isabella -- Isabella Capellini, PhD Research Associate Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group Department of Anthropology Durham University 43 Old Elvet DH1 3HN Durham (UK) phone: +44 (0)191 3346177 fax: +44 (0)191 3346101
