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Re: Hominid Brain Size: Testosterone, DHEA, and Melatonin
James Howard (phis@sprynet.com)
Sun, 03 Nov 1996 17:55:01 GMT
James Howard responds:
What happened to parsimony? Why must a theory of evolution necessarily be
complex?
ahimoe@net66.com (Albert Himoe) wrote:
>In article <55dtiu$osa@juliana.sprynet.com>, James Howard
>(phis@sprynet.com) writes:
>Much concerning a theory which relates brain size, DHEA, testosterone
>and human evolution.
>Darwinians, myself included, will have a hard time taking this theory
>seriously. What is selected for directly is not hormone levels or
>brain size, but behavior. Any given behavior is likely to be
>influenced by many biochemical factors, not just a few as implied by
>Mr. Howard's argument.
> In particular, it is implausible that changes in brain size over a
>number of different hominid species can be attributed to the global
>effects of the same few hormones for a series of different hominids.
>Also any evolutionary increase in brain size is likely to be due to a
>selective pressure for some critical behaviors, which may be
>facilitated by the increase in the size to those parts of the brain
>which affect that behavior. The size of the brain is a very crude
>evolutionary measure.
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