From: Clear as Mud (benny@nrg.com.au)
Date: Wed 07 May 2003 - 03:23:08 GMT
Then suppose circumstances change so that spot
provide more of an advantage. Over time the species evolves an elaborate
biochemical mechanism for spots that allows the species to survive
effectively in this new environment. Next suppose the environment changes
back so that drab grey is now more effective. Organisms can go back to
drab without unevolving the entire mechanism for spots. Instead they can
just have point mutations that disable the spots. Then if the environment
changes again so that spots are better, instead of re-evolving the whole
spot system again, all that is necessary is that a few individuals lose the
point mutations preventing spots from being expressed. This means that
spots can reappear much more quickly the second time than they did the
first time.
So my question is, are there any real examples of this occurring in
nature? Is there a term that is used to describe this phenomenon?
Reminds me of those cowboys Dace mentioned - adapting back and forth to splice cultural and political memes into total mayhem.
This 'oranism' constantly changes spots, yet keeps the grey area ( media). Evolution made easy? I call it 'Errorism"
Peace B
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