80
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
80 points (98.8% liked)
Today I Learned (TIL)
6469 readers
173 users here now
You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?
/c/til is a community for any true knowledge that you would like to share, regardless of topic or of source.
Share your knowledge and experience!
Rules
- Information must be true
- Follow site rules
- No, you don't have to have literally learned the fact today
- Posts must be about something you learned
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Just because a gene has become popular in a population doesn't necessarily mean it provides an evolutionary advantage. It can also be genetic hitchhiking, where a non-advantageous gene tags along with an advantageous one because they're located close together. Or even just genetic drift, where a gene becomes popular due to random chance.
There could be an advantage for this trait, but there doesn't need to be.
Also these are domestic goats, so the advantage could literally be "humans thought it was neat".