Re: AAT QUESTIONS...
HARRY R. ERWIN (herwin@osf1.gmu.edu)
14 Aug 1995 17:58:20 GMT
ann.nunn@sstar.com wrote:
: NE>venturing into the unknown. Species do not, as far as I know, radiate
: NE>into unfilled ecological niches unless their own niche is under threat
: NE>(someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
You're wrong. (Sorry.) Rather, the only way to keep species from radiating
into an unfilled ecological niche is for the intermediate forms to have
such low fitness that their population is vanishingly small.
: One of the threats in their own niche can be overpopulation, ne c'est
: pas?
For group selection to work sufficiently well that it is adaptive to
control one's population, the consequences of even marginal
overpopulation must be catastrophic. See Hardin, the Tragedy of the
Commons.
: Ann
: ---
: OLX 2.1 TD He is not deceived who knows himself to be deceived. <g>
--
Harry Erwin
Internet: herwin@gmu.edu
Home Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin (try a couple of times)
PhD student in comp neurosci: "Glitches happen" & "Meaning is emotional"
|