When Samuel Butler, that sharp critic of Darwin, remarked that "a hen is only an egg's way of making another egg," he may have spoken more profoundly than he thought. For in a very real sense the developed organism is no more than a vehicle for its genotype. At least it is from such a perspective on the hen - as only handmaid to the egg - that we get out best insights into the nature of its adaptive organization. Procurement of food and avoidance of death are proximate ends in relation to which many aspects of the hen's organization are directed. But they are not ends in themselves: these ends (and the fragments of organization that serve them) have been perpetuated because they are in turn necessary means to the supreme end of reproduction, which is the sole agent of perpetuation.
- Coling Pittendrigh (1958) "Adaptation, Natural Selection, and Behavior", p. 398
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário