Re: Evolution

Posted by mara on Jul 05, 2002 at 12:25
(170.115.180.227)

Re: Evolution (Dogrock)

some of what you are describing, seems to me to be part of a developmental process.

some developmental processes we are familiar with as larvae, to pupa, to adult, in some animals and youth to adolescent to adult in humans.

some other developmental processes may not be so evident.

as i mentioned before, the tolerance of lactose may be one of these less evident developmental processes.
it seems that some populations possess a developmental process in which they tolerate milk (lactose) when they are infants, but when they become adults they no longer tolerate milk (lactose), milk then causes physical distress.
the developmental process of not tolerating milk as an adult is present in almost all of the planet's populations.

there are some populations that continue to tolerate milk (lactose) into adulthood.
these populations are the ones that have written more about the drinking of milk into adulthood and have promoted the idea that drinking milk into adulthood is the common phenomena.

drinking milk into adulthood is not the common phenomena in most of the populations of the world, in contrast drinking milk into adulthood causes physical problems in most of the populations of the planet.

what i am trying to say with all this information is:

knowledge of developmental processes may be an insight into evolutionary mechanisms.
what is thought to be a developmental process in one population, may be an anomoly in another population, and the numbers of people possessing a particular developmental process may be significant.

p.s. i must add a disclaimer to this statement to all of the dairy farmers in the world.
i hardly never drink milk anymore, but i love ice cream and milkshakes and i like cheese, and in the past i was known to have had a few brandy alexanders and white russians, so i am not theoretically opposed to drinking milk, i am just mentioning that there are a large number of people for whom drinking milk as an adult is a physiclly debilitating thing.

there may be other developmental processes similar to the swimming to walking phenomena that might expand our perception of evolution.

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