>Adaptation is essentially an illusion. Like watching a movie, the action
appears to flow but it is a series of single shots.

I thank you for these quotes, Pete.  The above sentence, however, is
misleading.  Adaptation clearly occurs, as evidenced by the vast number of
species that have evolved over time to exploit different, and ever
changing, niches.

The misunderstanding comes when one thinks that genetic adaptation means
"perfection."  Nothing could be further from the truth for most organisms.
The closest would be those that have not needed to change (adapt) for
hundreds of millions of years.  Those species got lucky and are extremely
good at exploiting a niche; but that doesn't mean that another species
couldn't come along and be better at it.  In which case the former species
would be quickly driven to extinction by being outcompeted.

Our own species, Homo sapiens, is poorly adapted to the common sedentary
lifestyle and a diet high in refined carbohydrates and lacking in a
diversity of plant secondary metabolites, thus our need for a huge medical
infrastructure.

In the process of evolution, a species unwittingly and unconsciously tends
to adapt to its niche (or to a novel niche) based upon the tools (genes)
that it possesses in its toolbox.  We are all jury-rigged versions of
adaptation due to the cold and impartial pressure of natural selection,
which works only by eliminating the less fit (NOT by favoring the more fit).

In selective breeding, humans can exert either positive selection (FOR
certain traits), or negative selection (AGAINST certain traits).  Nature
only selects against.

Humans create a novel "realized niche" (see my recent articles on the
subject) for a species undergoing human selective breeding.  The result may
be a race that is well adapted for the artificial niche created by humans
(e.g., maize), but poorly adapted for survival in the wild (e.g., maize).

>The term adapt can be applied to a change in genetics in a population, OR a
change in behavior in response to stimuli, OR something learned (which is
really also behavior), OR a change in expression of genes already there
(plasticity/epigenetics).  Soooo basically locally adapted could mean many
different things that may or may not be what you are looking for.

Well put Jeremy!


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html