But Wirt, Natural selection doesn't "cull" but rather it "favors." And selecting "for" something is very different than selecting "against" something. Favoring a trait leads to adaptation. That is, those with a trait leave more descendents. Even so, it is not that simple. At any rate, John Endler does a wonderful job of clearing things up with "Natural Selection in the Wild" and I highly recommend it for anyone who has not read it, and, don't forget, "The Extended Phenotype" by Dawkins, that should also be required reading.
> Interpreting literally what I wrote leads to a condition that I normally rail > against myself. Selection never selects "for" anything. Selection operates > only as a culling mechanism, removing the least appropriate, least > competitive > phenotypes of the demic excess that currently fills the competitive arena. > What the heck does "demic excess" really mean? Cheers, Jim -- ------------------------------------- James J. Roper, Ph.D. Universidade Federal do Paraná Depto. de Zoologia Caixa Postal 19020 81531-990 Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil ===================================== E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone/Fone/Teléfono: 55 41 33611764 celular: 55 41 99870543 e-fax: 1-206-202-0173 (in the USA) ===================================== Zoologia na UFPR http://www.bio.ufpr.br/zoologia/ Ecologia e Conservação na UFPR http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/ ------------------------------------- http://jjroper.sites.uol.com.br
