HIST-1107EL Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Heredity, Sympatric Speciation, Francis Crick
5 Dec 2020
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Some darwinian theorists, such as the harvard psychologist steven pinker, have suggested that music is an accident, not an adaptation. It satisfies our ears in the same way that a slice of cake appeals to our taste buds. Others, following darwin himself, think sexual selection is important. Genetic change is the motor of evolution. A single change in a gene"s dna sequence might be of no consequence or it might be damaging, leading to a defective protein molecule; occasionally, it might be advantageous. It might be junk" a kind of harmless molecular parasite. If so, mutations in the vast majority of the genome would go unnoticed, but we now know that large parts of these sequences are conserved. Natural selection has removed any random changes in the dna, so it must be used for something. Junk" dna can contain non-functional genes a kind of genetic fossil or it may contain duplicates of important genes.
