Re: Further Evolution beyond the Human?

Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
9 Oct 1996 08:10:16 -0600

Note spam reduction.

In article <a.hibbert-0810961803180001@mac-138.ucl-32.bcc.ac.uk>,
Adam Hibbert <a.hibbert@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

>Evolution ain't finished out there in the Naturally-determined world
>(wherever that might be these days), but when was the last time *you*
>assessed a mate on his/her apparent reproductive potential?

According to a slew of recent research, whenever you've dated, lusted,
loved, or flinged.

Evolved psychological adaptations can (and apparently do) give rise to such
assessment and mating behavior without the conscious awareness of evolved
motives. See Thornhill and Gangestad's recent article in the sex issue
of Trends in Evolution and Ecology, in which they review recent research
on the "Evolution of Human Sexuality."

Selection, by the way, occurs still, in every generation. We've given
ourselves some degree of wiggle room with medical advances, but those
with serious (and heritable) phenotypic disorders are quickly culled,
just as old Charles D. described a hunderd and thirty seven years ago.

Bryant