[PairTheBoard]

I saw a show on Nova or National Geographic or the Discovery Channel about a recent discovery whereby just a small change in one gene suddenly morphed a single chamber heart for some species into a functioning two chamber heart. The implication being that small mutations might indeed produce large changes that improve the species.

Another point was raised concerning the huge ungainly tail feathers of male peacocks or some such bird. The ungainly tail feathers have got to be a major degradation of the male bird's ability to survive. But the female birds like them and will only mate with the males with the largest tail feathers. The ability of the male to grow large tail feathers is an indicator of his good health and probable strong genes which will likely produce a strong brood of healthy female offspring who will have good survival characteristics.

So the evolution of the ungainly male tail feathers has been driven by female preference. As the females may be using their intelligence to form that preference an argument can be made that the intelligence of the species itself can drive the direction of evolution. I suppose then we might blame our problems on the women drivers.

PairTheBoard