Re: Squirrels (was RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Turtles and iBooks)

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Jonathan King wrote:

> But my favorite squirrels are the ones (a subspecies?) that live in
> and around the parks of Boston.  I swear, and it's not entirely
> implausible, that these guys have been naturally selected for
> cuteness. They definitely have cuter (rounder, more babyish) features
> than most squirrels, and they all have adopted this hyper-cute "lope
> up to the human and sit on your haunches with your little arms tucked
> in" begging posture that must be seen to be believed.

Well, if being cute gets humans to feed them, then it isn't far fetched at
all.  There's an evolutionary process called neoteny that could explain a
fairly rapid evolution to a cuter appearance -- it's essentially retaining
the cute features of the infantile stage of development.  That's why dogs
are cuter than wolves, so it has happened before in human/nonhuman
coevolution.  If no one else has beat you to it, you might even consider
writing it up.

Mike

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