Talk:Evolutionary arms race

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Not only between prey & predator, but also between signaller & receiver for eg.

Does anyone know who originated term "arms race" in a biological context? Was it Dawkins? The Dawkins & Krebs paper is cited everywhere, so everybody appears to acknowledge this as the source of the analogy, but is that really so? --Julian Togelius 15:40, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Dawkins and Krebs cite H.B. Cott 1940 as a prior example of the metaphor in use in biology. Pete.Hurd 16:03, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sales Resistance

Prior use of the "sales resistance" metaphor: source of quote not verified:

"It's natural enough in our species, as in others, that the young birds should show off their plumage -- in the mating season. But the trouble in the modern world is that there's a tendency to rush all the birds on to that age as soon as possible and keep them there as late as possible, thus losing all the real value of the other parts of life in a senseless, pitiful attempt to prolong what, after all, is neither its wisest, its happiest, or most innocent period. I suspect merely commercial motives are behind it all: for it is at the showing-off age that birds of both sexes have least sales-resistance!" - C.S. Lewis

Pete.Hurd 15:38, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] HIV and FIV

About 10% of european caucasions have a certain gene that renders them immune to HIV. In the past, felines used to have FIV (feline immunodeficiancy virus) and through evolutionary adaptations and survival of the fittest (some cats had a certain gene that left them immune to FIV, thus they reproduced and their offspring had the gene), they are now completely immune to FIV. Does anyone know anything else about this? Baylorbiology 00:16, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

What this percent of Europeans have is a gene deletion, CCR5-Δ32, which might also render them more prone to infection as CCR5 has shown connections to inflammatory responses. Only R5 strands of HIV are effected by this particular deletion, and both alleles must be missing to impart immunity. Nagelfar 06:40, 25 July 2007 (UTC)