Michael writes:

> "Teaching requires close observation by the pupil," Kruetzen
>  said. "Offspring spend up to four years before they are weaned, so they
>  would have ample time to observe their mum doing it -- if she is a
sponger."
>
>  "This study provides convincing evidence that the behavior is transmitted
>  via social learning," commented Laela Sayigh of the University of North
>  Carolina Center for Marine Science.

A great number of people over the last 150 years have pointed out that the
process of evolution and learning are fundamentally the same mechanism. Indeed,
Norbert Wiener, the great mathematician/engineer at MIT, the person who first
coined the term "cybernetics" in the title of his 1948 book, "Cybernetics: or
control and communication in the animal and the machine," wrote on page 169:

"If the hereditary invariability concerns matter of behavior, then among the
varied patterns of behavior which are propagated some will be found
advantageous to the continuing existence of the race and will establish themselves,
while others which are detrimental to this continuing existence will be
eliminated. The result is a certain sort of racial or phylogenetic [="originating within
the family"] learning, as contrasted with the ontogenetic [="arising within
the self"] learning of the individual. Both ontogenetic and phylogenetic
learning are modes by which the animal can adjust itself to its environment."

In my own writings, I've always added sociogenetic [="arising within the
group"] learning as a third distinct form of evolution. See, e.g.:

     http://aics-research.com/research/notes.html#I

Wirt Atmar

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