If something works then you will persist in doing that something. You may even try to enhance or extend that something. In fact, the more you can do of that something then the better it should be for you....
If something works then you will persist in doing that something. You may even try to enhance or extend that something. In fact, the more you can do of that something then the better it should be for you. It’s tried and tested. Why would you do anything different?
This is not only a natural instinct but it also explains why, in Nature, when comparing species there’s so much variety, so many unique characteristics, so much that is extraordinary. Giraffes with their long necks; camels with their humps; narwhals with their lengthy tusk; chameleons with their darting tongue….. the remarkable, the exceptional and the unusual.
In producing this mix of features, genetic mutation brings about the creativity; genetic adaptation establishes the intensification.
The process begins when a genetic mutation is identified within a species as being advantageous or beneficial, thus making it desirable and sought after. A species will then seek to maximise this advantage by promoting that mutation through adaptation. It becomes the major factor – sometimes the only factor – in the selection of a reproductive partner. Those with the desired or most developed mutation become the more successful in reproducing. As a result, that particular genetic trait is more likely to be passed on to future generations; that particular genetic trait is more likely to become more dominant and more prominent.
With regard to the intensification, when a genetic trait, arising through mutation, is recognised as being beneficial a species will embrace it and then endeavour to pursue its elaboration to its limit. Why wouldn’t it? If something is helpful to an individual’s survival, well-being and/or prospects then that individual is going to at least maintain that something and, given the opportunity, possibly even seek to further that something.
That’s how the evolutionary process works. It’s self-perpetuating; it’s self-expanding. The more attractive a genetic trait is, the more that individuals who have it are going to flaunt it, which – as a stand-out feature – will make it and them more attractive, making those individuals more reproductively successful. That genetic trait is thereby advanced, becoming both more widespread and more pronounced. In so doing, it also becomes more desirable.
With an established direction and a gathering momentum there is therefore a natural tendency for genetic traits to intensify in terms of their conspicuousness.
It is not that different from the movement of dunes in a desert or the changing of a coastline through sedimentary deposition. The process begins with a trigger – something to cause an initial deposit. Once started, those deposits will then accelerate and accumulate until the landscape is reshaped.
Sometimes that mutational trigger can seem quite quirky. For instance, male hooded seals can blow a bright red balloon out of their nostril to attract a female or crested auklets will proudly display their impressive quiffs. These are both mutations that have – for whatever reason – acquired an importance in the selection of a reproductive partner and have gone on through intensification to become dominant features of those species.
Most of the time, however, the adoption of particular courses of evolutionary development are based on real, identifiable advantages – usually relating to some aspect of survival (the acquisition of food, protection from predators or as a defence against an environmental threat). Once a species has found its niche in Nature it will seek to pursue it to take maximum advantage.
The survival of a species requires this kind of genetic focus. In an ever-challenging and ever-changing environment if a species is not strengthening its genetic position then its existence may be threatened. This is what drives a species to seek the intensification of their genetic advantage.
The danger with genetic intensification is that some species might over-evolve. They may become too specialist, too finely-tuned, or a particular genetic feature may become too dominant, as for instance, a male peacock’s tail feathers.
Such intensive, singular genetic development carries a risk. The more specialised a creature is the more vulnerable it will be to changes – even the smallest of changes – to its environment. By being too good at what they do, by evolving too much, a species can risk their own extinction.
In terms of checks and balances, this over intensification is to some extent prevented by the fact that intensification can only progress so far at any given time. Too much, too quickly and the adaptations will be out of kilter with the rest of the individual’s body and would become unsupportable and unsustainable.
A rabbit’s ears, for instance, can only be so big before it becomes too difficult to lift its head.
A giraffe’s neck can only be so long for its heart to be able to pump blood to its head.
To drive evolution, the reproductive process is set up in such a way as to generate new and different genetic mutational outcomes which, through adaptation, have the possibility to develop and to go on and maximize their intensity.
That’s why, within Nature, some genetic traits can make quite an impression; that is why we get such variation, such diversity, such creativity.