But complex animals had obtained their adaptive flexibility at some cost — they had traded one dependency for another. It was no longer necessary to … - Michael Crichton

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But complex animals had obtained their adaptive flexibility at some cost — they had traded one dependency for another. It was no longer necessary to change their bodies to adapt, because now their adaptation was behavior, socially determined. That behavior required learning. In a sense, among higher animals adaptive fitness was no longer transmitted to the next generation by DNA at all. It was now carried by teaching.