Richard Dawkins: Insurance Policy: Two Eggs, One Survivor
Richard Dawkins explains the related egg-laying habits of Nazca Boobies, Blue Footed Boobies and Gannetts. These evolved adaptations may seem cruel to us, but the genes for these varying insurance...
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[waves crashing] [birds squawking] -These are Nazca boobies, related to the blue-footed boobies, and boobies are in turn related to Gannets, which we have in Britain. Brian Nelson showed in Gannets that they always lay just one egg. But rather puzzlingly, if he added an extra egg, they were often able to rear the chick. The Gannets are a bit of a mystery. Why, if they are capable of rearing two chicks, don’t they? One of the virtues of true science is that we admit it when we don’t understand something, and it stimulates us to do more work. Maybe the Gannets evolved their one-egg habit during a time when food was less plentiful, and they haven’t yet caught up with present-day conditions. Now, these Nazca boobies always...
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[waves crashing] [birds squawking] -These are Nazca boobies, related to the blue-footed boobies, and boobies are in turn related to Gannets, which we have in Britain. Brian Nelson showed in Gannets that they always lay just one egg. But rather puzzlingly, if he added an extra egg, they were often able to rear the chick. The Gannets are a bit of a mystery. Why, if they are capable of rearing two chicks, don’t they? One of the virtues of true science is that we admit it when we don’t understand something, and it stimulates us to do more work. Maybe the Gannets evolved their one-egg habit during a time when food was less plentiful, and they haven’t yet caught up with present-day conditions. Now, these Nazca boobies always...
