suspect that major new departures in evolution often start in just such a way, with a piece of lateral thinking by an individual who discovers a new and useful trick, and learns to perfect it. If the habit is then imitated by others, including perhaps the individual’s own children, there will be a new selection pressure set up. Natural selection will favour genetic predispositions to be good at learning the new trick, and much will follow. I suspect that something like this is how ‘instinctive’ feeding habits such as tree-hammering in woodpeckers, and mollusc-smashing in thrushes and sea
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