Am I understanding you correct? =20 Natural Selection selects against unfavorable phenotypes. Sexual Selection selects for favorable phenotypes. =20 =20 =20 VISIT HERPETOLOGICAL CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY www.herpconbio.org = <http://www.herpconbio.org>=20 A New Journal Published in Partnership with Partners in Amphibian and = Reptile Conservation and the World Congress of Herpetology. =20 Malcolm L. McCallum Assistant Professor Department of Biological Sciences Texas A&M University Texarkana 2600 Robison Rd. Texarkana, TX 75501 O: 1-903-223-3134 H: 1-903-791-3843 Homepage: https://www.eagle.tamut.edu/faculty/mmccallum/index.html =20
________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on behalf of = James J. Roper Sent: Thu 7/13/2006 6:37 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: Maldaptation, Extinction and Natural selection But Wirt, Natural selection doesn't "cull" but rather it "favors." And selecting "for" something is very different than selecting "against" something.=20 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. > =20 What the heck does "demic excess" really mean? Cheers, Jim -- ------------------------------------- James J. Roper, Ph.D. Universidade Federal do Paran=E1 Depto. de Zoologia Caixa Postal 19020 81531-990 Curitiba, Paran=E1, Brasil =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone/Fone/Tel=E9fono: 55 41 33611764 celular: 55 41 99870543 e-fax: 1-206-202-0173 (in the USA) =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Zoologia na UFPR http://www.bio.ufpr.br/zoologia/ Ecologia e Conserva=E7=E3o na UFPR http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/ ------------------------------------- http://jjroper.sites.uol.com.br
