In “World’s only iridescent mammal is a shiny accident” (New Scientist, 25 January 2012), Michael Marshall reports,
Animals from butterflies to birds have iridescent colours to draw the eye. But why golden moles? They spend most of their lives in near-darkness – and they’re blind.
The theory has been that iridescent colours should attract a mate, but in the mole,
Now a study of the structure of the hairs shows that they may be designed to streamline the moles or repel water, rather than attract a mate.
Which, we are told, is “an evolutionary accident.” Which raises an interesting question: How many of the claimed mate-finding features of life forms are in fact accidents of another process? Perhaps they only accidentally – or only in the researcher’s imagination – attract a mate?
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