Homeoboxes, Development & Evolution at the Behavioral Level

• Appendix?? by Mike Rohrbach, 1/7/98
  • The Aquatic Ape? by James Brody, 1/11/98
    
    

Jim and Sarah have opened up an interesting line of conversation. Most workers have rather dismissed the aquatic ape idea as "speculative", but the speculations can (as Jim suggests) open up new lines of inquiry.

The role of homeobox genes in development is a hot topic in developmental biology, including developmental neuroscience. To my knowledge (I could be wrong here) a clearly BEHAVIORAL (or evolutionary behavioral) evaluation of homeoboxes has not been explicitly explored. Michel & Moore (Developmental Psychobiology, MIT) do mention homeobox genes briefly, and offer a few references (e.g. Edelman, Gottlieb). An outstanding developmental biology text by Gilbert (Sinauer) provides a useful review.

It is not easy to relate the genetic-cellular material to organized behavior (never is!), but perhaps this is an area that deserves some serious, even speculative (!), thought.

Glad the issue came up.

John

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