Did our adapted mind evolve? (Revisited)

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: September 24, 2014

Did our adapted mind evolve?

In my extended comments on this topic I concluded with “Experience-dependent changes in DNA methylation can exert profound effects on neuronal function and behaviour. A single learning event can induce a variety of DNA modifications within the neuronal genome, some of which may be common to all individuals experiencing the event, whereas others may occur in a subset of individuals.” The experience-dependent changes are due to RNA-directed DNA methylation (i.e., RNA-mediated events, not evolutionary events).
Today, I read:

Skin coloring of rhesus macaque monkeys linked to breeding success, new study shows

Obviously, the evolutionary theorists cannot grasp biologically-based cause and effect. What’s worse is that Dario Maestripieri is one of the co-authors of the article: Sexually selected skin colour is heritable and related to fecundity in a non-human primate, which is reported above. Dario Maestripieri is also the ‘Workshop Organizer’ for the forthcoming:

ADAPTED MIND, ADAPTED BODY: THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND ITS NEUROENDOCRINE REGULATION

At the same time that serious scientists have realized that behavior and its neuroendocrine regulation is nutrient-dependent and pheromone-controlled, Dario and his workshop presenters/attendees seem destined to discuss evolution in stead of how ecological variation leads to RNA-mediated ecological adaptations in species from microbes to man via conserved molecular mechanisms.
I’m beginning to wonder if any evolutionist ever learned anything about the birds and the bees. For example, in white throated sparrows different morphological and behavioral traits manifested in plumage color and feeding behaviors arise via transgenerational epigenetic effects that link nutrient-dependent amino acid substitutions to the RNA-mediated changes in honeybees that establish their roles in the hive. Only by ignoring everything known about hormone-organized and hormone-activated behaviors in the birds and the bees can theorists think in terms of skin color and breeding success in rhesus monkeys. That level of ignorance seems destined to be displayed as participants in the workshops ADAPTED MIND, ADAPTED BODY: THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND ITS NEUROENDOCRINE REGULATION discuss how human behavior evolved.
Morphology and behavior concurrently arise as experience-dependent RNA-mediated ecological adaptations. No evolutionary events link morphology and behavior to skin coloring and breeding success in any other primate because the physiology of their reproduction is nutrient-dependent and pheromone-controlled like every other species on the planet.
 


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