The Red Queen Principle of Selective Adaptation, page 2

The Red Queen Principle works in the opposite direction, too. Ants, now placed in the genus Crematogaster, were initially equipped by their ancestors with powerful abdominal venom glands, along with hardened stingers manipulated by strong muscles. At some stage in their evolutionary development they acquired, through a chance mutation, a pedicel that attached to the dorsal thorax. This enabled them to swing their stingers upward, over their bodies, the moment a predator threatened. 

Today ants in the genus Crematogaster have only vestigial structures for venom production, stinging, and ejection of venom from reservoirs through the stingers. The attachment of the pedicel to the dorsal thorax, however, not only remains, but is now assisted by highly specialized muscles that swing the abdomen upward at the slightest provocation. This lets these ants vigorously display what appears to be a capacity to sting, and that display, alone, has proven sufficient to discourage predatory attacks. The stingers and their associated venom glands, etc., are no longer needed. Because, in the distant past, these ants used their stings purely for defense, and not for food production, any evolutionary developments that atrophied the stinger, musculature, and venom glands helped them survive and thrive beyond that point, simply because they could then transfer the energy previously spent on those structures to other, more productive, pursuits.

Anyone wishing to learn what the Red Queen Principle is all about must read Matt Ridley's book by that title, first published in 1993. Ridley's book is subtitled "Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature," which suggests a narrow focus. He admits that his book is an inquiry into the nature of human nature and its evolution, and is based on the presumption that the central theme of that evolution is sexual. He goes on to assert that "there is nothing in our natures that was not carefully 'chosen' in this way for its ability to contribute to eventual reproductive success." Yet, though human sexuality is Ridley's focus, he uses a multitude of non-human examples to illustrate and prove his points.

THIS PAGE, and this topic, are under further construction, and will be fleshed out as time permits... Page  1  *  2  *

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