Evolutionary Lag: What Is It and What Does It Tell Us about the Design of Human Behavior?
MRIC 2005/06
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"Evolutionary Lag: What Is It and What Does It Tell Us about the Design of Human Behavior?"
November 8th
John Byers - Biology
Abstract: I first became interested in evolutionary lag when its presence was thrust upon me during my long-term study of pronghorn. Several aspects of pronghorn behavior do not make sense when viewed from a current perspective, but make prefect sense when viewed as adaptations to the recent past. There are examples in many other species of the persistence of behavioral traits long after the selective forces that brought them about are gone. Humans are such a species. We retain many behavioral traits that are adaptations to a stone-age or pre-stone-age time. Several of these traits are not adaptive in modern society, but we are not likely to loose them soon.
John Byers - Biology
Abstract: I first became interested in evolutionary lag when its presence was thrust upon me during my long-term study of pronghorn. Several aspects of pronghorn behavior do not make sense when viewed from a current perspective, but make prefect sense when viewed as adaptations to the recent past. There are examples in many other species of the persistence of behavioral traits long after the selective forces that brought them about are gone. Humans are such a species. We retain many behavioral traits that are adaptations to a stone-age or pre-stone-age time. Several of these traits are not adaptive in modern society, but we are not likely to loose them soon.
Original url: http://www.uidaho.edu/class/mric/archives/pre-2010/fall2005/byers