Information Related to "God, Science and the Bible (7/06)"
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Major evolutionary premise fails in real-life test
Charles Darwin's theory of "sexual selection"—that females of a species choose to mate with males having the best genes—has been held up as a fundamental pillar of evolution in classrooms and science texts for well over a century. Many generations of students have been taught that this is the way evolution works.
After all, from an evolutionary standpoint, it makes perfect sense—females should mate with the highest-quality males of their species to best ensure the survival of their offspring, and this leads to ever-stronger, ever-smarter, ever-improving members of the species, driving the process of evolution ever onward.
There's just one problem: It's not true. Researchers have proved that while the theory may sound good, things don't work that way in real life.
The Wall Street Journal, in a May 5 article titled "Darwin Revisited: Females Don't Always Go for Hottest Mate," summarizes findings from some research projects designed to test Darwin 's hypothesis.
In a 24-year study spanning multiple generations of collared flycatchers (a bird species), Swedish researchers found that females who mated with prime-quality males ended up with fewer and less-attractive offspring. The reason? "The studs were so busy mating they had no time to raise offspring, causing their health and fecundity to suffer. Homelier birds were better dads, raising sons who had more mating success."
In other words, the results were the opposite of what evolutionary theory would have predicted.
Crickets are another notable exception to Darwin 's theory. Female crickets mate with nearly any male, making no attempt to choose the "best" available. In so doing, "they increase the genetic diversity of their offspring, improving the chances that some will survive no matter what pathogens and enemies the kids encounter."
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