Found this video fascinating, especially in the context of Descent:
Why Men Are Better Navigators Than Women: Adaptation or Testosterone Side Effect? (youtube)
From the description:
"Neuroscientist Justin Rhodes explodes the myth behind why males are better at navigation than females.
Most people, including many evolutionary biologists, believe that men are slightly better navigators than women because of the division of labor in early human Hunter-Gatherer societies. The story goes that those with superior navigation skills were more likely to return home to pass on their genes and evolution took care of the rest. But Rhodes and his team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a way to put this long-held theory to the test. ... To read more about this research, please visit the University of Illinois' News Bureau Press Release here:
http://news.illinois.edu/news/"
Male Navigation Superiority Not Likely By Natural Selection
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Alter-Fox
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Re: Male Navigation Superiority Not Likely By Natural Select
Word to the wise;
Genetics and heritability are not the same thing, even though they overlap a lot of the time. The effects of a hormone, for example, even though they're not directly (proximately) caused by a gene (although ultimately they are because the hormone is encoded by the DNA, and the cell structures that ultimately cause the reactions to it are also encoded by DNA, but back to topic) are still heritable, so they can still be influenced by natural selection and they can still be adaptations.
And of course there would be a possible explanation for males getting a gene that females don't (although it's unlikely for reasons I won't try to explain here). Mammalian males do get one chromosome that females don't. The video doesn't seem to address the possibility that a gene could have evolved on the Y chromosome in the first place, instead of moving there later on.
@!$#$##!!!!!!! THE WORD IS REGARDLESS!!! IRREGARDLESS IS NOT A WORD, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
A scientist should know better than to use a word that isn't.
Genetics and heritability are not the same thing, even though they overlap a lot of the time. The effects of a hormone, for example, even though they're not directly (proximately) caused by a gene (although ultimately they are because the hormone is encoded by the DNA, and the cell structures that ultimately cause the reactions to it are also encoded by DNA, but back to topic) are still heritable, so they can still be influenced by natural selection and they can still be adaptations.
And of course there would be a possible explanation for males getting a gene that females don't (although it's unlikely for reasons I won't try to explain here). Mammalian males do get one chromosome that females don't. The video doesn't seem to address the possibility that a gene could have evolved on the Y chromosome in the first place, instead of moving there later on.
@!$#$##!!!!!!! THE WORD IS REGARDLESS!!! IRREGARDLESS IS NOT A WORD, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
A scientist should know better than to use a word that isn't.
Ship's cat, MPSV Iberia: beware of cat.
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Beware my original music, at http://soundcloud.com/snowfoxden.
Re: Male Navigation Superiority Not Likely By Natural Select
Ain't wasn't a word, but it made its way into the dictionary.
Much like...
Shewt
Yeawntoo
and..
Sensuous
Much like...
Shewt
Yeawntoo
and..
Sensuous